MAXIMIZATION OF PULL-IN VOLTAGE OF MICRO-ELECTROMECHANICAL STRUCTURES USING TOPOLOGY OPTIMIZATION

The design problem consists in maximizing the pull-in voltage using topology optimization method, which is formulated as an optimal material distribution. In addition to the classical volume constraint, different structural constraints could be taken into consideration. Sensitivity analysis is one of the key issues of the optimization process and is performed with the formulation of eigenvalue topology optimization problems. Here the paper investigates topology optimization of strongly coupled electromechanical systems. To avoid important modifications of the electric field by the optimization process, this first study considers a non design electrode and use topology optimization to design an optimal suspension structure. Solution procedure of the optimization problem is based on CONLIN optimizer using a sequential convex programming. This method that has proved its efficiency in many structural problems (sizing, shape) is here tailored to strongly coupled multiphysics design problems under consideration. The choice of appropriate explicit convex approximations schemes for multiphysic problems is investigated. The proposed method is illustrated and validated on microbeam optimization applications