Scaling of micro- and nanodevices actuated by Casimir forces -: art. no. 263106

The effect of the Casimir force in micro- and nanoelectromechanical systems is examined taking fully into account the dielectric properties of the materials, as well as the finite thickness of movable elements in micro- and nanosystems. The resulting equations are exact, and from the bifurcation diagrams the critical separation before jump-to-contact is determined. It is shown how the critical separation changes, for example, with the dielectric properties of the materials and how these systems can be rescaled based on the information from the bifurcation diagrams. (c) 2005 American Institute of Physics.