Sogand Hoshyarmanesh, Mohsen Bahrami^*

Show more
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Amirkabir University of Technology, Tehran, Iran.
Show less

Abstract: Capacitive nano-switches have been of great interest as replacements for conventional semiconductor switches. Accurate determination of the pull-in voltage is critical in the design process. In the present investigation, pull-in instability of nano-switches made of two parallel plates subjected to electrostatic force is studied. For this purpose, two parallel rectangular nanoplates with opposite charges are modeled based on molecular dynamics (MD) technique. Different initial gaps between nanoplates and its effect on pull-in phenomena are studied in addition to taking different values of geometrical and physical parameters into account to evaluate pull-in voltages. Here molecular dynamic simulations as an atomic interaction approach are employed for modeling of nano-switches in order to study pull-in instability considering atomic interaction and surface tension. Boundary conditions and also the van der Waals force are considered as important parameters to investigate their effects on pull-in voltage values.

Keywords: Nanomechanics, Pull-In Instability, Electric Field, Molecular Dynamics Simulation, van der Waals Force

Cite this paper: Hoshyarmanesh, S. and Bahrami, M. (2014) Molecular Dynamic Study of Pull-In Instability of Nano-Switches. Advances in Nanoparticles, 3, 122-132. doi: 10.4236/anp.2014.33017.

References

[1]   Hu, Y.-C., Chang, C. and Huang, S. (2004) Some Design Considerations on the Electrostatically Actuated Microstructures. Sensors and Actuators A: Physical, 112, 155-161.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.sna.2003.12.012

[2]   Hu, Y.-C., Wang, Y.H. and Huang, S.C. (2004) On the Dynamic and Stability Analysis of Electrostatically Actuated Microstructures. Proceedings of the 1st International Symposium on Micro & Nano Technology (ISMNT-1), III, 2-01.

[3]   Pappalardo, M. and Caronti, A. (2002) A New Alternative to Piezoelectric Transducer for NDE and Medical Applications: The Capacitive Ultrasonic Micromachined Transducer (cMUT). University Roma, Rome.

[4]   Pappalardo, M. (2002) A New Approach to Ultrasound Generation: The Capacitive Micromachined Transducers. University Roma, Rome.

[5]   Rocha, L., Cretu, E. and Wolffenbuttel, R. (2004) Full Characterisation of Pull-In in Single-Sided Clamped Beams. Sensors and Actuators A: Physical, 110, 301-309.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.sna.2003.09.023

[6]   Osterberg, P.M. and Senturia, S.D. (1997) M-TEST: A Test Chip for MEMS Material Property Measurement Using Electrostatically Actuated Test Structures. Journal of Microelectromechanical Systems, 6, 107-118.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/84.585788

[7]   Pamidighantam, S., et al. (2002) Pull-In Voltage Analysis of Electrostatically Actuated Beam Structures with FixedFixed and Fixed-Free end Conditions. Journal of Micromechanics and Microengineering, 12, 458-464.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/0960-1317/12/4/319

[8]   Gupta, R.K. (1998) Electrostatic Pull-In Test Structure Design for In-Situ Mechanical Property Measurements of Microelectromechanical Systems (MEMS), Citeseer.

[9]   Wei, L.C., Mohammad, A.B. and Kassim, N.M. (2002) Analytical Modeling for Determination of Pull-In Voltage for an Electrostatic Actuated MEMS Cantilever Beam. IEEE International Conference in Semiconductor Electronics, 19-21 December 2002, 233-238.

[10]   Ganji, B.A. (2012) Accurate Determination of Pull-In Voltage for MEMS Capacitive Devices with Clamped Square Diaphragm. International Journal of Engineering, 25, 161-166.
http://dx.doi.org/10.5829/idosi.ije.2012.25.03b.02

[11]   Rocha, L., Cretu, E. and Wolffenbuttel, R. (2003) Displacement Model for Dynamic Pull-In Analysis and Application in Large-Stroke Electrostatic Actuators. Proceedings of Eurosensors 17, 17th European Conference on Solid-State Transducers, Guimar, 20-21 September 2003, 448-451.

[12]   Osterberg, P., Yie, H., Cai, X., White, J. and Senturia, S. (1994) Self-Consistent Simulation and Modelling of Electrostatically Deformed Diaphragms. IEEE Workshop on Micro Electro Mechanical Systems, MEMS’94, Oiso, 25-28 January 1994, 28-32.

[13]   Hu, Y.C. and Lee, G.D. (2007) A Closed Form Solution for the Pull-In Voltage of the Micro Bridge Tamkang. Journal of Science and Engineering, 10, 147-150.

[14]   Fakhrabadi, M.M.S., Rastgoo, A. and Ahmadian, M.T. (2013) Analysis of Pull-In Instability of Electrostatically Actuated Carbon Nanotubes Using the Homotopy Perturbation Method. Journal of Mechanics of Materials and Structures, 8, 385-401.
http://dx.doi.org/10.2140/jomms.2013.8.385

[15]   Fakhrabadi, M.M.S., Rastgoo, A., Ahmadian, M.T. and Mashhadi, M.M. (2014) Dynamic Analysis of Carbon Nanotubes under Electrostatic Actuation Using Modified Couple Stress Theory. Acta Mechanica, 225, 1523-1535.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00707-013-1013-0

[16]   Hu, Y.C., Chang, P.Z. and Chuang, W.C. (2007) An Approximate Analytical Solution to the Pull-In Voltage of a Micro Bridge with an Elastic Boundary. Journal of Micromechanics and Microengineering, 17, 1870-1877.

[17]   Kinaret, J.M., Nord, T. and Viefers, S. (2003) A Carbon-Nanotube-Based Nanorelay. Applied Physics Letters, 82, 1287-1289.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.1557324

[18]   Dequesnes, M., Rotkin, S. and Aluru, N. (2002) Calculation of Pull-In Voltages for Carbon-Nanotube-Based Nanoelectromechanical Switches. Nanotechnology, 13, 120.

[19]   Istadeh, K.H., Kalantarinejad, R., Aghaei, M.J. and Yazdi, M.R.S. (2013) Computational Investigation on H2S Adsorption on the CNT Channel of Conductometric Gas Sensor. Journal of Computational and Theoretical Nanoscience, 10, 2708-2713.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1166/jctn.2013.3270

[20]   Sarkisov, L. and Harrison, A. (2011) Computational Structure Characterisation Tools in Application to Ordered and Disordered Porous Materials. Molecular Simulation, 37, 1248-1257.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/08927022.2011.592832

[21]   Smith, W., Yong, C. and Rodger, P. (2002) DL_POLY: Application to Molecular Simulation. Molecular Simulation, 28, 385-471.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/08927020290018769

[22]   Hoshyarmanesh, S., Bahrami, M. and Kalantarinejad, R. (2014) A Multiscale Approach in the Computational Modeling of Bio-Physical Environment of Micro-Mechanical Biosensor towards the Prostate Specific Antigen Diagnosis. Journal of Computational and Theoretical Nanoscience, 11, 1374-1384.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1166/jctn.2014.3507

[23]   Fakhrabadi, M.M.S., Khorasani, P.K., Rastgoo, A. and Ahmadian, M.T. (2013) Molecular Dynamics Simulation of Pull-In Phenomena in Carbon Nanotubes with Stone-Wales Defects. Solid State Communications, 157, 38-44.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ssc.2012.12.016

[24]   Fakhrabadi, M.M.S., Rastgoo, A. and Ahmadian, M.T. (2013) On the Pull-In Instability of Double-Walled Carbon Nanotube-Based Nano Electromechanical Systems with Cross-Linked Walls. Fullerenes, Nanotubes and Carbon Nanostructures.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/1536383X.2013.787603

[25]   Ansari, R. and Sahmani, S. (2013) Prediction of Biaxial Buckling Behavior of Single-Layered Graphene Sheets Based on Nonlocal Plate Models and Molecular Dynamics Simulations. Applied Mathematical Modelling, 37, 7338-7351.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.apm.2013.03.004

[26]   Bahrami, M., Kalantarinejad, R., Aghaei, M.J. and Azadi, N. (2011) Simulation of the Interaction of Carbon Nanotubes and External Flow. Journal of Computational and Theoretical Nanoscience, 8, 563-567.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1166/jctn.2011.1723

[27]   Mohammadi, V., Ansari, R., Shojaei, M.F., Gholami, R. and Sahmani, S. (2013) Size-Dependent Dynamic Pull-In Instability of Hydrostatically and Electrostatically Actuated Circular Microplates. Nonlinear Dynamics, 73, 1515-1526.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11071-013-0882-z

[28]   Mousavi, T., Bornassi, S. and Haddadpour, H. (2013) The Effect of Small Scale on the Pull-In Instability of NanoSwitches Using DQM. International Journal of Solids and Structures, 50, 1193-1202.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijsolstr.2012.11.024

[29]   Wang, K.F. and Wang, B.L. (2014) Influence of Surface Energy on the Non-Linear Pull-In Instability of NanoSwitches. International Journal of Non-Linear Mechanics, 59, 69-75.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijnonlinmec.2013.11.004

[30]   Behera, D. and Chakraverty, S. (2013) Fuzzy Finite Element Based Solution of Uncertain Static Problems of Structural Mechanics. International Journal of Computer Applications, 59, 69-75.

[31]   Wojtaszak, I.A. (1937) The Calculation of Maximum Deflection, Moments, and Shear for Uniformly Loaded Rectangular Plate with Clamped Edge. Journal of Applied Mechanics, Transactions ASME, 4, A173-A176.

[32]   Szilard, R. (1973) Theory and Analysis of Plates: Classical and Numerical Methods. Prentice-Hall, Upper Saddle River.

[33]   Timoshenko, S., Woinowsky-Krieger, S. and Woinowsky, S. (1959) Theory of Plates and Shells. Vol. 2, McGraw-Hill, New York.

[34]   Hansson, T., Oostenbrink, C. and van Gunsteren, W. (2002) Molecular Dynamics Simulations. Current Opinion in Structural Biology, 12, 190-196.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0959-440X(02)00308-1

[35]   Phillips, J.C., Braun, R., Wang, W., Gumbart, J., Tajkhorshid, E., Villa, E., et al. (2005) Scalable Molecular Dynamics with NAMD. Journal of Computational Chemistry, 26, 1781-1802.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/jcc.20289

[36]   Verlet, L. (1967) Computer “Experiments” on Classical Fluids. I. Thermodynamical Properties of Lennard-Jones Molecules. Physical Review, 159, 98.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1103/PhysRev.159.98

[37]   De Luca, S., Todd, B.D., Hansen, J.S. and Daivis, P.J. (2013) Electropumping of Water with Rotating Electric Fields. The Journal of Chemical Physics, 138, Article No. 154712.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4801033