Electrostatic parallel plate actuators are common in micro-electro-mechanical systems due to their compatibility with micro-fabrication technology. Parallel plate actuators suffer from an instability problem called the pull-in phenomenon that happens when the applied DC voltage exceeds a certain value called the static pull-in voltage. The value of this critical voltage is important in many applications that depend on parallel plate actuators such as switches and static gas sensors. The fringe field around the edges of the plates could severely affect the performance of the actuator. This paper introduces a new model for the parallel plate actuator to calculate the value of static pull-in voltage. The proposed model considers the fringe field between the two plates. The static pull-in voltage of some PolyMUMPs actuators is practically measured and compared to the simulation results that involve the fringe field effect. The model is simulated using MATLAB to show the influence of that field on the static pull-in voltage. The MATLAB results of the proposed model are validated with ANSYS.

中文翻译：

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研究平行板致动器边缘场效应的灵活模型

静电平行板致动器由于与微制造技术的兼容性而在微机电系统中很常见。平行板致动器存在称为吸合现象的不稳定问题，当施加的直流电压超过称为静态吸合电压的某个值时就会发生这种现象。该临界电压的值在许多依赖平行板致动器（例如开关和静态气体传感器）的应用中很重要。板边缘周围的边缘场会严重影响执行器的性能。本文介绍了一种新的平行板执行器模型来计算静态吸合电压值。所提出的模型考虑了两个板之间的边缘场。实际测量了一些 PolyMUMPs 执行器的静态拉入电压，并与涉及边缘场效应的模拟结果进行了比较。该模型使用 MATLAB 进行仿真，以显示该场对静态吸合电压的影响。所提出模型的 MATLAB 结果用 ANSYS 进行了验证。