UNIT-4 Micro system Modeling

• Moving solids and flowing fluids distinguish

microsystems from microelectronics. While there is
no intended physical movement in electronic circuit
elements, in most microsystems the functionality is
due to the movement of solids and/or fluids. Hence,
microsystems are in fact microdynamic systems.
• In order to understand how such dynamic
micromachined devices perform and how to design
them, we need to model the behavior of moving
solids and fluids. Our focus in this chapter is on solids.
Movements of solids can be modeled in two fundamentally different ways: as
rigid bodies and as deformable bodies. In rigid bodies, there is no relative
motion between any two points. A block moving in a slot and a cylindrical
pin rotating in a cylindrical hole are examples of rigid-body motion [see
Figure 4.1(a)].

In contrast, there is relative

motion between points in deformable bodies. Imagine the stretching of a
rubber string
or a bar or the bending of a beam as shown in Figure 4.2(b). Note that in
reality no solid
is perfectly rigid; we only assume some solids to be rigid if their deformation
is
negligibly small.
• Both types of movement of solids exist in
microsystems, but since deformable solids
• dominate we focus on them. The deformable
solids in microsystems have several forms:
• bars, beams, membranes, plates, shells, and more
• complicated geometric shapes. In this chapter, we
learn the basics of a few such slender
• deformable solids that are acted upon by
different types of forces.
• In order to know what stress is, we need to imagine cutting an elastic body and
then
• seeing how much internal force acts on a certain area. Consider the same bar
under a different loading, as shown in Figure 4.2(b). Imagine cutting this bar at
different points and seeing what the internal force would be to keep the separated
segment in equilibrium.
• If we divide this force by the cross-sectional area, we get the stress in it. Now, this
stress is not the same throughout the bar because the internal forces are not the
same.
• Similarly, if the crosssectional area is not the same, the stress is not the same at all
points even if the internal force is. A conical tip of an atomic force microscope
(AFM) is an example of a bar with variable cross-sectional area. The axial stress in it
varies even though the same internal force acts throughout.
The stress in a bar is called a normal stress as the internal force in it acts
normal
(i.e. perpendicular) to the area of cross-section. Furthermore, if the
separated segment is being pulled by the forces, the resulting stress is
called tensile stress. If the stress acts so as to compress the bar, then
the stress is said to be compressive. The general convention is to treat
tensile stress as positive and compressive stress as negative.
Stress is a fictitious quantity defined in order to understand what happens
inside an elastic body. We cannot see stress. But what we can see is
that the force acting on the bar stretches or contracts it.
We may be able to see this with the naked eye, with a sophisticated
measurement technique, or with a powerful microscope. Since the
value of the stretching
or contraction differs in different situations, we define a relative quantity
called strain. It is