Modeling and Uncertainty Quantification of Thermoelastic Damping in Micro-Resonators

In the design of micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) such as micro-resonators, dissipation mechanisms may have detrimental effects on the quality factor, which is directly related to the response amplitude of the system that is excited at its natural frequency. One of the major dissipation phenomena to be considered in such micro-systems is thermoelastic damping. Hence, the performance of such MEMS is directly related to their thermoelastic quality factor which has to be predicted accurately.
Moreover, the performance of MEMS depends on manufacturing processes which may cause substantial uncertainty in the geometry and in the material properties of the device. The reliability of MEMS devices is affected by the inability to accurately predict the behavior of the system due to the presence of these uncertainties. The aim of this paper is to provide a framework to account for uncertainties in the finite element analysis. Particularly, the influence of uncertainties on the performance of a micro-beam is studied using Monte- Carlo simulations. A random field approach is used to characterize the variation of the material as well as the
geometric properties. Their effects on the thermoelastic quality factor of a micro-beam are studied.