Coupled structural-electrostatic analysis of acoustic microsensor

Abstract

This paper focuses on the design of acoustic microsensor using finite element analysis with multiphysics coupling. Piezoelectric materials (PZT 5A) are used as the cantilever beams for the acoustic microsensor. These cantilever beams have different lengths to sense sound signals at the range of 20 Hz to 20 kHz. When the sound signals are applied to the acoustic microsensor, the beams will vibrate at their respective resonant frequencies to produce the electrical potentials. The electrostatic computations are coupled with the structural mechanical computation via a piezo-electrical relationship. Eigen frequency solver is used to find the natural frequencies of the cantilever beams.