The Earthquake Engineering Online Archive

Probabilistic Characterization and Response Prediction of Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems

Mirfendereski, Dariush; Der Kiureghian, Armen; Ferrari, Mauro; Johnson, George C.

UCB/SEMM-1996/04, Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, 1996-06, 212 pages (500/C23/96/04)

Micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) are micro devices used as sensors and actuators with structural dimensions of the order of a micron. The focus in this dissertation is on MEMS made of planar, polycrystalline silicon and fabricated through integrated circuit-based processes. This dissertation represents a first attempt to analytically and numerically characterize the uncertainty inherent in the properties and response of MEMS that arise from the natural randomness in the constituent materials.

Available online: http://nisee.berkeley.edu/documents/SEMM/SEMM-96-04.pdf (7 MB)