Effects of imperfections on bifurcation of multi-layer microstructures of MEMS under thermal loading

Bifurcation of multi-layer microstructures subjected to thermal loading can be harmful for reliability and stability of MEMS structures, In this paper, three imperfections of geometry. coefficient of thermal expansion and thermal loading were introduced to investigate Iheir effects on structural bifurcation by finite element simulation. Results show that bifurcation is strongly influenced by the imperfections. With larger deviation of imperfections, it results in a decreasing temperature to trigger the bifurcation and a gradual beginning of it.