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Coupled Electromechanical Systems

• Smart systems or smart material always deal with
more than one energy domain.
• Piezoelectric materials involve mechanical and
Modeling of Coupled electrical domains.
Electromechanical Systems • Shape memory alloys involve mechanical and
thermal domains accompanied by material phase
transitions.

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ECE Harish Sharma ECE Harish Sharma

Electrostatics Multiple Point Charges

• The force that makes like charges repel and unlike
charges attract is called the electrostatic force.
• Coulomb’s law quantifies the electrostatic force F12
between a pair of point charges Q1 and Q2 separated
in vacuum by a vector r12 whose magnitude is r and
the direction is along the unit vector r^
(1)
• where ɛ0 is the permittivity of free space or vacuum.
• Experimental evidence shows that Coulomb’s law
holds for distances ranging from 10-3m to 10-7m
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• For N charges, each with charge Qi and located at
vectorial distance ri^ri from a charge Q, the electrostatic
force experienced by this charge Q is given by
(2)
• The electrostatic force per unit charge is the electric
field E. A point charge Q creates an electric field
around itself
(3)
• The subscript P denotes that the field is given at a point
P located at a vectorial distance of r^r from charge Q.
ECE Harish Sharma

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Multiple Point Charges Electric Potential

• An electric charge in an electric field stores energy—
• The electric field due to multiple charges at a point P the electrostatic energy—as potential energy. This
located away from the same reference point is energy per unit charge is called electric potential
(denoted by Ø) with volt V as its unit, which is joules
(4)
per coulomb, J/C.
• The work done when a charge Q is moved from point
A to B in the electric field is given by
(5)

• The negative sign indicates that when we move along

the electric field E; the field does the work and when
we move against the field, we must do positive work.
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Electric Potential Electric Potential

• The nature of the electrostatic field is such that the • we define the electric potential difference as:
work done is independent of the path taken. Such a
field is called conservative.

(7)

(6)

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Electric Potential Electric Potential

Let the coordinates of A and a point very close to it, say • Taylor series
A’, be (x, y, z) and (x + Δx, y + Δ y, z + Δ z). We can write
the change in potential energy between A and A’ and
find that this change depends on the electric field, E, at
point A. For this, we write the work done in moving a • If Δx is sufficiently small, the approximation
charge Q from A to A’:

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Electric Potential
Electric Potential
• From Eq. (8)

(10)
(8)

is a small vector from A to A’, that
is,Δl. From Eq. (5), we have
(9)
• relationship between the electric field and the
electric potential.
• The electric field is the gradient of the potential.
• The symbol r is called the del operator and is used
for denoting the gradient.

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Electric Field and Potential Due to Electric Field and Potential Due to
Continuous Charge Continuous Charge (Cont.)
• The electric field at a point P due to several point • Electric potential
charges and continuous charge along a curve L, surface
S, and volume V can be written as

(11) (12)

• where ψL, ψS and ψV are charge densities per unit

length, surface, and volume, respectively.

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Conductors and Dielectrics Conductors and Dielectrics (Cont.)

• In insulators movement of charges over microscopic (14)
distances, causing polarization of the charge. Such
polarized insulators are called dielectrics. (15)
• At steady state, conductors cannot hold any charge
inside them, but dielectrics can.
• Electric displacement D
(13)

• where ɛ0 = permittivity of free space=dielectric constant

= 8.854x10-12 F/m
• = electric susceptibility,
• Pep = electric polarization vector.
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Gauss’s Law
Gauss’s Law (Cont.)
(16)
• Using divergence theorem or the Green–Gauss
• The leftmost term in Eq. (16) is a surface integral taken over a theorem.
closed surface S that encloses volume V. The integrand in this (17)
term is the dot product of D and the differential surface
element vector ds, whose magnitude is the area of an
infinitesimal surface patch at a point on S (i.e. ds) and • By using Eqs. (16) and (17), we can write
direction is the unit normal at that point (i.e. ^n). (18)
• The middle term in Eq. (16) is simply the total charge enclosed
by volume V because ψv is the charge per unit volume. (19)
• Therefore, the last term of Eq. (16) gives the total charge, Q
enclosed, within the volume enclosed by the closed surface S.

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ECE Harish Sharma ECE Harish Sharma

Gauss’s Law (Cont.2)

Gauss’s Law (Cont.3)
• expand the compact notation of del-squared
• From Equation (15)
(22)
• From Equation (16) (20)
• If we consider a volume that does not enclose any charge

• Laplace equation (23)

Poisson equation (21)

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Charge Distribution on the Charge Distribution on the Conductors’

Conductors’ Surfaces
• The electric potential is constant in the entire
conductor. And, the charge resides on the boundary of
the conductor.
• Since the work done to move a
unit charge around a closed path
abcda in a conservative field,
such as the electric field E, is zero, we can write
(24)
Surfaces (Cont.)
• Shrinking Δh to zero Δ h → 0, the line integral in Eq.
(24) reduces to Et Δ ω, where Et is the tangential
component of E.
(25)
• The electric field on the surface (i.e. boundary) of a
conductor is always normal to it.

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ECE Harish Sharma ECE Harish Sharma

Charge Distribution on the Conductors’ Electrostatic Forces on the Conductors

Surfaces (Cont.2)
• The charges on the surface of a conductor create an
• Consider the same rectangle in previous figure and electric field around it. If there are nearby conductors
write Gauss’s law for the closed boundary: (creating their own fields around them), the total electric
field is the combined effect of all of them. From Eq. (28),
(26)
we can write
(29)
• As Δ h → 0
• For E1n = E2n
(27)

(28)

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Electrostatic Forces on the Conductors Modeling of Coupled

• Consider an infinitesimally small surface patch of area Δs,
Electromechanical Systems
experiences a force field of . Since it has a
charge of (remember that ψs is the charge per unit
area), the force on it is equal to
(30)

• As Δs → 0, in the limit, the electrostatic force at a point is

(31)

• This is force per unit area

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ECE Harish Sharma ECE Harish Sharma

Modeling of Coupled Modeling of Coupled

Electromechanical Systems (Cont.)
• The polysilicon beam in deforms due to the electrostatic force
acting on it.
• The region over which the electrostatic problem was solved get
changes.
• The electric field, potential, and charge distribution depend on the
geometry of the conductors and dielectrics. Hence change as the
geometry changes due to elastic deformation.
• So, we need to solve the electrostatic problem for the deformed
geometry in (b), not Figure (a)
• Furthermore, the electrostatic force also changes and will differ
from the one that caused the deformation.
Electromechanical Systems(Cont.2)
• Now, if we solve the electrostatic problem again on the new
region, we get the new electrostatic force. This force applied on
the undeformed conductor(s) causes a new deformation that
further changes the region over which the electrostatic force must
once again be solved. This process continues until there is no
change in the deformation, a situation referred to as the
convergence of the numerical solution process. An iterative
solution procedure is necessary because of the coupling between
the electrostatic and elastostatic equations. The solution that
satisfies both the equations with appropriate electric potential (in
the electrostatic problem) and deformations (in the elastostatic
problem) is the goal here.

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Modeling of Coupled Modeling of Coupled

Electromechanical Systems(Cont.3) Electromechanical Systems(Cont.4)
• Consider two conductors: the first is bulky, fixed on
three sides, and electrically grounded at zero
potential;
• The second is slender, is at some applied potential Ø2,
and is fixed on its left edge.
• Construct a bounding box around the two conductors
in and subtract the two conductors to find the electric
potential in the shaded region.
• Use of the FE or finite difference method to solve the
electrostatic problem in bounding box.

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ECE Harish Sharma ECE Harish Sharma

Modeling of Coupled Modeling of Coupled

Electromechanical Systems(Cont.5) Electromechanical Systems(Cont.6)
• Eq. (17) can be written in matrix form as
• Use the differential form of Gauss’s law [Eq. 19] or the
integral form of Gauss’s law given in Eq. (17).
• Integral equations can be solved using the boundary
element method. Only the boundaries, and not the
interiors of the objects need to be discretized with a (32)
mesh.
• Discretize the closed surfaces of the 3D conductors
and dielectrics into small triangular panels.
• where the number of panels is N.

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Spring-Restrained Parallel-Plate Spring-Restrained Parallel-Plate

Capacitor Capacitor
• A capacitive accelerometer • A capacitive accelerometer that measures acceleration
in the direction perpendicular to a substrate wafer has
a proof-mass with an electrode underneath it.

one plate is fixed while the other is moving. The second

An electrostatic comb-drive. plate has an elastically deformable structure attached to it.
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Spring-Restrained Parallel-Plate Spring-Restrained Parallel-Plate

Capacitor Capacitor
• Two infinite parallel sheets separated by a gap g0, the • From equation (23)
bottom sheet be at ground (i.e. zero) potential while
the top one is at some potential Øt V. (33)
• The potential in the space between the plates does
not vary with respect to x and y. Hence, Eq. (33) can
be reduced to
(34)

• Integrating it twice
(35)

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Spring-Restrained Parallel-Plate Capacitor Spring-Restrained Parallel-Plate Capacitor

• The electrostatic force per unit area on the top sheet using
Eq. (31):
(39)
(36)
• Where is the outward normal to the top sheet that
From equation (10) the electric field faces the bottom sheet.
(37) • If the plate area is A then From equation (38)
The surface charge density, per Eq. (28), is
(38)
(40)
where En is the normal component of the electric field E.
ɛ is the permittivity of the medium between the sheets.
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ECE Harish Sharma ECE Harish Sharma

Spring-Restrained Parallel-Plate Capacitor Spring-Restrained Parallel-Plate

• From eq.(39) Capacitor
(41) • total energy
(42)
• Analogous quantities in electrostatics and elastostatics
By taking the total derivative of TE(uz,Q) with respect
to uz and Q, we get
(43)

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Spring-Restrained Parallel-Plate Spring-Restrained Parallel-Plate Capacitor

Capacitor • Taking second derivative of total energy
• The total force due to the elastostatic and electrostatic
domains (48)
(44)
λ > 0 Stable
λ < 0 Unstable
(45)
λ = 0 Naturally stable (Transition State)
(46) From equation 49

• For static equilibrium, this total force must be zero. (49)

(47)

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Spring-Restrained Parallel-Plate Capacitor References

• G. K. Ananthasuresh, K. J. Vinoy, S. Gopalakrishnan,
K. N. Bhat, V. K. Aatre - Micro and Smart Systems_
Technology and Modeling (2012, Wiley)
(50)
• From equation (49) and (50) transition (i.e. pull-in)
voltage

(51)

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