Dear MEMS researchers,





I am working at the LAAS-CNRS in Toulouse (France) on the modeling, fabrication
and characterization of a MEMS torsion mirror.

I am currently studying the vibrational damping characteristics of the system.

The main contributions to energy losses in MEMS are:

                - internal friction in the material
                - support loss
                - squeeze force
                - airflow force or viscous damping

Internal friction and support loss seem to be negligible compared to the other
dampings at atmospheric pressure. Many papers deal with the squeeze film
damping.

My problem is to clarify analytically the airflow force. I read the book the
most mentionned in references in the studies of viscous damping: Fluid
Mechanics, Landau and Lifchitz, Pergamon Press, 1959. Unfortunately, without
convincing results.

If anyone has any information on a such viscous damping (which is in fact the
viscous damping of a rectangular plate in vibrational tilting motion) please
contact me by email or at the address below.

Thanks for your help.





Franck LARNAUDIE


Microstructures and Integrated Microsystems Group
LAAS-CNRS
7, avenue du Colonel Roche
31077 Toulouse
France

Phone: 33-5-61-33-69-34
Fax: 33-5-61-33-62-08