Electromechanical contact of microelectromechanical structure

Contact deformation of a membranelike microelectromechanical structure subjected to uniform mechanical pressure was analyzed by considering the effect of electric stress. Using the membrane theory, a closed-form solution of the contact deformation in an electric field was obtained. The contact size increases with the increase in the electric field intensity and is a linear function of the electrical voltage between the membrane and the rigid substrate if the membrane is only subjected to an electrical stress. Using the energy criterion, the adhesive contact between the membrane and the substrate in an electric field was also discussed. A lower bound of the contact size was obtained as a function of the electric stress and the adhesion energy.