Design and Simulation of Micro-cantilever for MEMS Applications

Abstract

Micro-cantilevers belong to MEMS set of devices and are often used for detection of forces in micromechanical sensors (e.g., pressure sensors and accelerometers) and probe for force sensor to atomic force microscope used as transducers, transport mechanisms, relays, switches, resonators, etc. This paper presents as to how the displacement of micro-cantilever is affected by the load applied to the micro-cantilever. The effect of width change on the displacement of the cantilever is also analyzed. The micro-cantilever is designed using COMSOL Multiphysics and the mathematical analysis of the effect of different loads and width change on the cantilever is done using MATLAB software. The analysis is done for different materials (polysilicon, tungsten and copper). Then the theoretical and simulated results are compared. It has been observed that the value of displacement increases with the increase with applied boundary load and decreases with the increase in the width of the cantilever.