Design and simulation of a MEMS device to investigate the strain engineering properties of 2D nanomaterials

This paper presents the design and simulation of a novel MEMS device enabling the investigation of the strain engineering properties of 2D materials, like graphene. The novel MEMS device consists of a double set of opposed v-shaped thermal actuators, each provided with heat sink beams, and capacitive readout in order to electrically measure the displacement applied to the nanomaterial sample. The device was designed by means of both analytical modelling and finite element based multiphysics simulations. A displacement capacitive sensor was developed to measure the specimen deformation with high accuracy. The calculated sensitivity is 5.2 fF/nm, and the total stiffness of the device is 40253.6 N/m. The device structure was designed with a compact footprint in order to be compatible with other physical characterization instruments, such as electronic microscopy chambers.