Abstract
Micromachines are extremely novel artifacts with a variety of special characteristics. Utilizing their tiny dimensions ranging roughly from 10 to $1O^3$ micro-meters, the micromachines can perform tasks in a revolutionary manner that would be impossible for conventional artifacts. Micromachines are in general related to various coupled physical phenomena. They are required to be evaluated and designed considering the coupled phenomena. This paper describes finite element analysis (FEA) simulation of practical behaviors for the micro actuator. Especially, electric field modeling in micro actuators has been generally restricted to in-plane two-dimensional finite element analysis because of the complexity of the micro actuator geometry. However, in this thesis, the actual three-dimensional geometry of the micro actuator is considered. The starting torque obtained from the in-plane two-dimensional analytical solutions were compared with that of the actual three-dimensional FE analysis results. The starting torque is proportional to $V^2$, and that the two-dimensional analytical solutions are larger than the three-dimensional FE ones. It is found that the evaluation of micro actuator has to be considered electrical leakage phenomenon.
