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The MEMS Module addresses design issues that arise in the micro-world. It models physical phenomena in actuators and sensors plus microfluidic and small piezoelectric devices.

Most MEMS applications are multiphysics by their very nature and usually include

Mixing from microfluidic micromixer

electromagnetic- structural, thermal-structural, fluid-structure (FSI), or electromagnetic-fluid interactions. To this end, the MEMS module provides equations and settings optimized for the single- and coupled-physics modeling that these interactions may require.

The module includes analyses in the stationary and transient domains as well as eigenfrequency, parametric, quasi-static and frequency-response analyses.

New Features in 3.3

Improved damping
- Loss-factor damping
- Equivalent viscous damping (for piezoelectric models)
- Damped eigenfrequency analysis; decay factor and quality factor
Ready-made multiphysics couplings
- Electroosmotic flow
- Thin-film damping
- Fluid-structure interaction
Easy-to-use constraints
Damped eigenfrequency analysis
New models

The MEMS Module, available as an add-on to Comsol Multiphysics, is a multiphysics modeling environment for the research and design of microelectromechanical systems. Its strengths cover all coupled physics phenomena that exist in MEMS devices, physics you access through customized graphical interfaces designed specifically for piezoelectric, electrokinetic flow, and plain stress and strain applications. It also brings seamless access to the Comsol Multiphysics computational engine and its other discipline-specific modules for the coupling of all types of physics in a single design.

To augment the application modes available in the basic Comsol Multiphysics package, the MEMS Module adds those specifically needed to simulate MEMS devices:


	Solid analysis
	Plane stress
	Plane strain
	Piezoelectric effect
	Electrokinetic flow
	Electrostatics

In these application modes you can specify the physical and material properties that are particularly important in a MEMS design. It's also easy to define orthotropic and anisotropic materials. You can define material properties as arbitrary functions of space, time, or even as arbitrary functions of the field variables. Materials modeling, together with the application modes just listed, allow users in research, design, engineering or education to enjoy a number of significant benefits:


	Make quick feasibility studies
	Optimize a design
	Experiment with different designs and parameters
	Reduce costs by minimizing prototyping
	Visualize results

In the MEMS Module you can investigate a set of physical phenomena that, when configured for coupled problems, form the basis for successful MEMS design. Just a few examples of possible MEMS analyses include:

Electromechanical

	Moving boundaries with ALE (arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian) analysis
	Capacitance calculations with ALE analysis

Thermomechanical

	Residual stress
	Stress stiffening
	Buckling
	Thermal expansion actuators
	Joule heating

Fluid-structure interactions

	Thin-film damping
	Moving mesh and boundaries with ALE analysis

Microfluidics

	Electrokinetic flow (diffusion, convection, migration)
	Electroosmotic flow
	Electrophoresis/dielectrophoresis
	Electrothermal effects

The MEMS Module includes several application modes needed to create multiphysics models, which are crucial for trustworthy MEMS analyses. These images show the results from a simulation of a micromechanical comb drive. The postprocessing image (above) shows the electric field as a surface color, and the displacements of the comb itself appear as a deformation in the geometry.