Sensors and Actuators A 136 (2007) 327

Review
Squeeze lm air damping in MEMS
Minhang Bao
a,
, Heng Yang
b
a
State Key Lab of ASIC and System, Fudan University, Shanghai 200433, PR China
b
State Key Lab of Transducer Technologies, Shanghai Institute of Micro System and Information Technologies,
CAS, Shanghai 200050, PR China
Received 30 November 2006; accepted 2 January 2007
Available online 16 January 2007
Abstract
The paper presents an overview and reports the recent progress of research on squeeze lm air damping in MEMS. The review starts with
the governing equations of squeeze lm air damping: the nonlinear isothermal Reynolds equation and various reduced forms of the equation
for different conditions. After the basic effects of squeeze lm damping on the dynamic performances of micro-structures are discussed based
on the analytical solutions to parallel plate problems, recent research on various aspects of squeeze lm air damping are reviewed, including
the squeeze lm air damping of perforated and slotted plate, the squeeze lm air damping in rareed air and the squeeze lm air damping
of torsion mirrors. Finally, the simulation of squeeze lm air damping is reviewed. For quick reference, important equations and curves are
included.
2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Squeeze lm air damping: Reynolds equation; Simulation
Contents
1. Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
2. Reynolds equations for squeeze lm air damping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
2.1. Nonlinear Reynolds equation for compressible lm. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
2.2. Nonlinear Reynolds equation for squeeze lm damping of parallel plates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
2.3. Linearized Reynolds equation for compressible gas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
2.4. Linearized Reynolds equation for incompressible gas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
3. Squeeze lm air damping of parallel plate and basic damping effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
3.1. Viscous damping force and elastic force of squeeze lm air damping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
3.2. Squeeze lm air damping of compressible gas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
3.2.1. The viscous damping force and the elastic damping force . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
3.2.2. The cut-off frequency of the squeeze lm air damping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
3.2.3. The squeeze lm air damping of rectangular plate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
3.3. The effect of squeeze lm damping on the dynamic behavior of vibration systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
3.3.1. Condition of
o

c
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
3.3.2. Condition of
o

c
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
3.3.3. Condition of
o

c
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
3.4. The verication of the effects of squeeze lm air damping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
3.5. The coefcients of viscous damping force for incompressible gas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
3.5.1. Strip plate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
3.5.2. Circular plate (dish plate) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

Corresponding author. Tel.: +86 21 55664527; fax: +86 21 65643449.

E-mail address: mhbao@fudan.edu.cn (M. Bao).
0924-4247/$ see front matter 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.sna.2007.01.008
4 M. Bao, H. Yang / Sensors and Actuators A 136 (2007) 327
3.5.3. Annular plate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
3.5.4. Rectangular plate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
3.6. Amplitude effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
3.6.1. The amplitude effect on viscous damping. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
3.6.2. The amplitude effect on elastic damping. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
3.7. Border effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
3.7.1. Acoustic border conditions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
3.7.2. Extraction of elongation through FEM simulations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
4. Squeeze lm air damping of hole-plate and slotted plate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
4.1. Squeeze lm air damping of innite, thin hole-plate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
4.2. Squeeze lm air damping of innite, thick hole-plates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
4.3. Squeeze lm air damping of nite, thick hole-plate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
4.3.1. Modied Reynolds equation for hole-plates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
4.3.2. Solution to a strip hole-plate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
4.3.3. Effective damping area approximation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
4.4. Squeeze lm air damping of slotted plate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
5. Squeeze lm air damping of rareed air . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
5.1. Effective coefcient of viscosity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
5.2. Christians model for rareed air damping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
5.3. Energy transfer model for squeeze lm air damping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
5.3.1. Velocity change and energy transfer caused by collisions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
5.3.2. Quality factor for squeeze lm air damping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
6. Squeeze lm air damping of torsion micro-mirrors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
6.1. Damping of a strip mirror plate at balance position . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
6.2. Damping of a rectangular mirror plate at balance position . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
6.3. Damping of a rectangular torsion mirror at a nite tilting angle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
6.4. Damping of torsion mirror in rareed air . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
7. Simulation of squeeze lm air damping. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
7.1. Physics level simulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
7.2. System level simulation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
7.3. Squeeze lm damping in the free molecular region . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Acknowledgements. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
1. Introduction
As the volume forces such as gravity and inertia that work
on a machine vary in direct proportion to the (length)
3
, while
surface forces such as viscous force vary in direct proportion to
the (length)
2
, the effect of surface forces on a micro-machine
is relatively greater than the effect of volume forces. There-
fore, the effect of surface forces (most notably the damping
force of the surrounding air), which can be neglected for a
machine of conventional dimensions, may play an important role
with micro-machines and the signicance of the effect becomes
greater as micro-machined structures decrease in size. As a com-
mon result, the motion of small parts in a MEMS device can be
affected by the surrounding air signicantly. The air presents a
counter reactive force on the moving of the plates.
Newell [1] observed that the ever-present damping effect of
the surrounding air would be increased when a plate was oscil-
lating near a second surface due to the squeeze lm action of
the gas between the surfaces. The squeeze lm damping will be
more important than the drag force damping of air if the thick-
ness of the gas lm is smaller than one-third of the width of
the plate. Therefore, for most MEMS devices for which friction
has been avoided, the squeeze lm effect is the most important
damping effect on its dynamic behavior, as the most commonly
used technologies are capacitive sensing and electric driving, for
which narrow air gaps often result.
For MEMS devices with a plate (a proof mass) that moves
against a trapped lm, squeeze lm air damping has been a
problem of great importance as the mechanism dominates the
damping and thus substantially affects the system frequency
response. The dynamic behavior of accelerometers, optical
switches, micro-torsion mirrors, resonators, etc. is signicantly
related the squeeze lm air damping of the mechanical struc-
tures.
Though the resistive force of surrounding air is much less
signicant than the friction force in affecting the motion of con-
ventional machines, air lm may play an important role in gas
lm lubrication in addition to the well-known application in
dampers for pneumatic machines. Thus, prior to the advent of
MEMS, an extensive literature had already been developed for
squeeze lm effect relating to air lm lubrication, which had
application in air bearing and levitation systems. Most of the
works related to the parallel motion of the surfaces, with less
attention being given to the squeeze lm effect caused by nor-
mal motion of the surfaces. The realization that squeeze lms
could have a signicant effect on bearing stability prompted
a more detailed analysis and experiments to test the theory
[2,3].
M. Bao, H. Yang / Sensors and Actuators A 136 (2007) 327 5
Blech [4] rst refer the use of squeeze lmair damping to the
control of the frequency response of seismic accelerometers, an
important technique widely used in MEMS devices thereafter.
More recently the use of squeeze lmair damping in tailoring the
response of micro-accelerometers has been described by Allen
et al. [5], Starr [6] and Andrews et al. [7].
Though the basic nature of squeeze lmair damping had been
understood by 1980s, the research and development of MEMS
devices and MEMS technologies have always stimulated inten-
sive research activity in the area. Some examples are: (1) The
deep reactive ion etching (DRIE, or induction coupled plasma,
ICP) technologies developed in recent years produces devices
with thick, perforated plate. The adequate model for the squeeze
lm air damping of the perforated plates becomes desirable; (2)
The encapsulation of MEMS devices in vacuum for high qual-
ity factor needs more accurate model for estimating the squeeze
lmair damping in rareed air; (3) With the wide applications of
torsion mirrors in recent years, the squeeze lmdamping attracts
more and more attention recently; (4) In addition, there is always
the need for numerically calculation of the damping effect for a
precise design, once the basic model has been established.
For a review on the research on squeeze lm air damping,
this paper starts with the basic equations for squeeze lm air
damping in Section 2. The squeeze lm air damping of parallel
plate and the effects of squeeze lmair damping are reviewed in
Section 3. Then, the squeeze lm air damping effects of perfo-
rated plates, in rareed air and for torsion mirrors are reviewed
in Sections 46, respectively. Finally, the modeling and simula-
tion are reviewed in Section 7. In this article, only the squeeze
lm damping problems for rigid plates are considered.
2. Reynolds equations for squeeze lm air damping
2.1. Nonlinear Reynolds equation for compressible lm
The behavior of squeeze lm is in general governed by both
viscous and inertial effect within the uid. However, for the very
small geometries encountered in MEMS devices, inertial effect
is often negligible. In such a case, the behavior of the uid is
governed by the well-known Reynolds equation.
For the application of uid lubrication, Osborne Reynolds
rst formulated the theory for the lm between two surfaces in
relative motion more than a century ago [2]. However, the most
general form of Reynolds equation for compressible gas is the
nonlinear differential equation rst given by Tipei in 1954 [8]:

x
_

h
3

P
x
_
+

y
_

h
3

P
y
_
= 6
_
2
(h)
t
+

x
[h(u
1
+u
2
)] +

y
[h(v
1
+v
2
)]
_
(2.1)
where Pis the pressure in the lm, the density, the coefcient
of viscosity of the uid, h the thickness of the lm, u
1
and u
2
the
velocities in the x-direction of the top plate and the bottomplate,
respectively, and v
1
and v
2
are the velocities in the y-direction of
the two plates. The conditions for the equation are that the gas
ow is steady (i.e., the time variation of velocity and the inertia
of the uid can be ignored) and the thermal gradient through the
lm thickness is negligible.
In 1962, Langlois [2] derived the general form of Reynolds
equation based on NavierStokes equations and the general
equations of viscous hydrodynamics [9]. The Reynolds equa-
tion is obtained under the conditions that the modied Reynolds
numbers R
S
and R
L
are much smaller than unity. The R
S
and R
L
are dened as
R
S
=
h
2

, R
L
=
V
L
h
2
w
(2.2)
where V
L
is the relative velocity in lateral direction and w the
width of the plate.
The condition of small R
S
is equivalent to the condition of
negligible inertia effect of uid. In reality, the condition of
small R
S
is adequate for most MEMS devices and the rela-
tive movement in lateral direction is not considered. Thus, for
the squeeze lm damping problems encountered in MEMS, the
Reynolds equation is reduced to

x
_

h
3

P
x
_
+

y
_

h
3

P
y
_
= 12
(h)
t
(2.3)
For MEMS devices, the temperature variation is usually
negligible due to the small dimensions. Under the isothermal
condition, gas density is directly proportional to its pressure
P. Thus, we have

x
_
Ph
3

P
x
_
+

y
_
Ph
3

P
y
_
= 12
(hP)
t
(2.4)
This nonlinear Reynolds equation has been commonly used
in MEMS for isothermal squeeze lm damping of compress-
ible gas. Note that, pressure P consists of two components:
P=P
a
+p; P
a
is the ambient pressure and p the deviatory pres-
sure caused by the squeeze lm effect.
A straightforward derivation of Reynolds equation can be
found in [10,11]. By applying the conditions of force-balance
and mass conservation to a volume element, Eq. (2.3) can be
obtained directly. Readers are referred to the books [10,11] for
the derivation.
2.2. Nonlinear Reynolds equation for squeeze lm damping
of parallel plates
For normal motion of parallel plates, h as well as is not a
function of position. Eq. (2.4) can be simplied as

x
_
P
P
x
_
+

y
_
P
P
y
_
=
12
h
3
(hP)
t
(2.5)
or

2
x
2
P
2
+

2
y
2
P
2
=
24
h
3
(hP)
t
(2.6)
If the pressure is normalized by ambient pressure P
a
,

P =
P/P
a
, by using the normalized variables, x = x/l, y = y/l,

h =
6 M. Bao, H. Yang / Sensors and Actuators A 136 (2007) 327
h/h
o
and =t, the nonlinear Reynolds equation for a plate
oscillating with small amplitude around its balanced position
can be written in a non-dimensional form:

2
x
2

P
2
+

2
y
2

P
2
= 2
(

P)

(2.7)
where is referred to as the squeeze number:
=
12l
2
P
a
h
2
o
(2.8)
where is the radial frequency and l the typical length of the
plate: the width or length of a rectangular plate, the radius of a
circular plate, etc.
2.3. Linearized Reynolds equation for compressible gas
For small displacement of the plate around its balance posi-
tion (h h
o
and p P
a
), Eq. (2.5) can be linearized as [4]:
p
a
_

2
p
x
2
+

2
p
y
2
_

12
h
o
2
p
t
=
12p
a
h
o
3
dh
dt
(2.9)
By using normalized variables, the linearized Reynolds equa-
tion for compressible gas can be written in the non-dimensional
form:
_

2
p
x
2
+

2
p
y
2
_

=
d

h
d
(2.10)
As the relaxation process of gas compression is considered in
Eq. (2.9) or Eq. (2.10), the gas is considered as compressible.
The degree of gas compression is related to the squeeze number
.
For very large , from Eq. (2.9), we have P
a
h +h
o
p =0.
This relation is equivalent to the Boyles law, PV=constant,
which means that the gas in the lm is fully compressed, failing
to escape when it is compressed with high frequency or by a
quick squeeze action.
2.4. Linearized Reynolds equation for incompressible
gas
For very small (or slow squeeze action), the gas in the lm
has enough time to leak so that p/P
a
h/h
o
, or, the gas
is not appreciably compressed. Thus, the condition is referred
to as the incompressible gas condition. Under this condition,
Eq. (2.9) reduces to

2
p
x
2
+

2
p
y
2
=
12
h
3
o
dh
dt
(2.11)
Or, in a non-dimensional form, we have
_

2
p
x
2
+

2
p
y
2
_
=
d

h
d
(2.12)
These are the equations usedfor MEMSdevices at lowfrequency
or with slow movement.
3. Squeeze lm air damping of parallel plate and basic
damping effects
3.1. Viscous damping force and elastic force of squeeze lm
air damping
For a pair of parallel plates as shown in Fig. 1(a), the resistive
force to the plate moving normally against the stationary plate
is caused by the damping pressure between the two plates. The
damping pressure consists of two main components: the compo-
nent to cause the viscous owof air when the air is squeezed out
of (or sucked into) the plate region and that to cause the com-
pression of the air lm. Here in this paper, the force component
related to the viscous ow is referred to as the viscous damping
force, and the force component related to the air compression is
referred to as the elastic damping force.
If the plate oscillates with a lowfrequency, or, the plate moves
with a slowspeed, the gas lmis not compressed appreciably. In
this case, the viscous damping force dominates. It will be seen
later that the viscous force is directly proportional to the speed
of the plate.
On the other hand, if the plate oscillates with a very high
frequency, or moves witha highspeed, the gas lmis compressed
but fails to escape. In this case, the gas lmworks like a bellows.
Thus, the elastic force dominates. Obviously, the elastic force is
directly proportional to the displacement of the plate.
3.2. Squeeze lm air damping of compressible gas
According to Section 2, for small displacement, the squeeze
lm air damping of parallel plates is generally governed by the
linearized Reynolds equation, Eq. (2.9). The equation for com-
pressible gas has been solved in different ways since the 1960s
[24,12]. For the convenience of comparison, only the problem
of long rectangular plate (i.e., the strip plate) and/or rectangular
plate (if available) will be reviewed in this section.
3.2.1. The viscous damping force and the elastic damping
force
Based on Eq. (2.4) and assuming that the distance of the two
plates varies according to
h = h
o
(1 + cos t) (3.1)
Fig. 1. Squeeze lm air damping (a) cross-sectional view; (b) the damping pressure.
M. Bao, H. Yang / Sensors and Actuators A 136 (2007) 327 7
Langlois [2] solved the Reynolds equation for 1 by using
a perturbation method for the rst order approximation (equiv-
alent to the solution to the linearized Reynolds equation, Eq.
(2.9)). The normalized damping force

F for the strip plates is
found to be

F = [f
e
() cos t +f
d
() sin t] (3.2)
The rst and the second terms in the equation are the elastic
damping force and the viscous damping force, respectively. Eq.
(3.2) can be equivalently expressed as

F = A() cos[t +()] (3.3)

where A() =
_
f
e
()
2
+f
d
()
2
is the amplitude of damping
force and =arctan[f
d
() +f
e
()] is the phase lag.
Langlois found that, for small , the two force components
could be approximated as
f
e
() =

2
120
+ (3.4)
f
d
() =

12
+ (3.5)
Thus, the amplitude of normalized viscous damping force for
small is approximately equal to (/12) sin t, while the elastic
force is negligible.
For large , he obtained the approximations:
f
e
() = 1
_
2/ + (3.6)
f
d
() =
_
2/ + (3.7)
Thus, the elastic damping force is approximately cos t with
a phase lag close to zero (i.e., the force is in phase with the dis-
placement cos t), while the viscous damping force vanishes.
Curves in Fig. 2 illustrate the dependence of the force com-
ponents on the squeeze number (note: is proportional to
) for compressible gas lm in the range where the most sig-
nicant behavior is observed. The solution to Eq. (2.11) for
incompressible gas approximation (the dash line) is included
for comparison. Similar results were found for dish plates in
[2].
If we now return to the real physics (non-normalized) quan-
tities, the damping force is
F =

FP
a
A = P
a
A[f
e
() cos t +f
d
() sin t]
Fig. 2. The dependence of viscous damping force and elastic force on squeeze
number.
where Ais the area of the plate (i.e., A=Lw). If the displacement
of the plate with reference to its balanced position is denoted as
y, we have y =h h
o
=h
o
cos t and y = h
o
sin t. Thus,
the damping force takes the form of
F =

FP
a
A =
P
a
A
h
o
f
e
()y
P
a
A
h
o

f
d
() y = k
e
y c
d
y
(3.8)
where k
e
=P
a
Af
e
(/h
o
) is the coefcient of elastic damping
force and c
d
=P
a
Af
d
()/h
o
) is the coefcient of viscous damp-
ing force. According to Eqs. (3.4)(3.8), we have k
e
0 and
c
d
(Lw
3
/h
3
o
) for
c
, but k
e
=P
a
A/h
o
and c
d
=0 for

c
.
3.2.2. The cut-off frequency of the squeeze lm air damping
Grifn et al. [3] treated the compressible squeeze lm
problem for a strip plate in a slightly different way. They
determined rst the lm response to a step change in the lm
thickness and then used the principle of superposition com-
bined with the convolution integral formulation to determine
the lm response to any displacement function. The Laplace
transform of the damping force on the strip plate was given
by

F(s)

(s)
=
96Lw
3

4
h
3
o

m=1
1
(2m1)
4
s
1 +s/
c
(3.9)
Then, the innite series solution was truncated into one term
approximation:

F(s)

(s)
=
96Lw
3

4
h
3
o
s
1 +s/
c
(3.10)
where
c
is the approximate cut-off frequency of the squeeze
lm air damping:

c
=

2
h
2
o
p
a
12w
2
(3.11)
Obviously, a cut-off frequency corresponds to a specic cut-
off squeeze number,
c
=
2
=9.8696. As pointed out by Grifn
et al., the exact squeeze number obtainedfromLanglois analysis
for the strip plate is 10.1342. From the one term approximation
of Grifn et al., the coefcient of viscous damping force for strip
plates is
c
d
=
96Lw
3

4
h
3
o

Lw
3
h
3
o
(3.12)
And, the coefcient of elastic damping force is
k
e
=
8LwP
o

2
h
o
0.81
Ap
a
h
o
(3.13)
At the cut-off frequency (or the cut-off squeeze number)
dened by Grifn et al., the elastic force equals the viscous
damping force. The cut-off frequency is an important parame-
ter in analyzing the damping effect on the amplitudefrequency
relation of a vibrating system. A similar discussion can also be
found in [13].
8 M. Bao, H. Yang / Sensors and Actuators A 136 (2007) 327
Grifn et al. also veried the analytical results by experiments
at low frequency. They found that the agreement is very good
when the gap distance is smaller than the plate dimensions by a
factor of 10.
3.2.3. The squeeze lm air damping of rectangular plate
In 1983, Blech [4] treated the squeeze lm damping problem
for rectangular plate, which has wide applications in modern
MEMS devices. He found the cut-off squeeze number for a
rectangular plate by a one-term approximation:

c
=
2
_
1 +
1

2
_
(3.14)
where is the aspect ratio of the rectangular plate. For a strip
plate ( =), he obtained the same result for cut-off squeeze
number by Grifn et al. [3].
The solutions to the rectangular damping problemwere found
to be
f
d
() =
64

m,n odd
m
2
+(n/)
2
(mn)
2
{[m
2
+(n/)
2
]
2
+
2
/
4
}
(3.15)
and
f
e
() =
64
2

m,n odd
1
(mn)
2
{[m
2
+(n/)
2
]
2
+
2
/
4
}
(3.16)
By equating f
d
() and f
e
(), the exact value of cut-off squeeze
number can be found via numerical calculation. The dependence
of the cut-off squeeze number on 1/ is given in Fig. 3.
More recently, Darling et al. [12] derived the same results as
Eqs. (3.15) and (3.16) by using Green function method. With
this method, they were able to treat various boundary conditions
with greater exibility. For example, they treated the squeeze
lm problems with boundary conditions for one edge closed,
two edges closed, etc.
Fig. 3. The dependence of cut-off squeeze number on the aspect ratio of rect-
angular plate.
By using the derivation process for Eqs. (3.12) and (3.13), the
coefcient of viscous damping force of squeeze lmair damping
is
c
d
() =
64p
a
A

6
h
o

m,n odd
m
2
+(n/)
2
(mn)
2
{[m
2
+(n/)
2
]
2
+
2
/
4
}
(3.17)
and the coefcient of elastic damping force is
k
e
() =
64
2
p
a
A

8
h
o

m,n odd
1
(mn)
2
{[m
2
+(n/)
2
]
2
+
2
/
4
}
(3.18)
The equations are widely used for the analysis of squeeze lm
damping in MEMS devices.
3.3. The effect of squeeze lm damping on the dynamic
behavior of vibration systems
According to the analyses made by Langlois [2], Grifn et
al. [3], Blech [4] and Darling et al. [12], the model is quite clear
that the squeeze lm air damping provides additional viscous
damping force and elastic force to the vibration system. Thus,
the damping effect on the dynamic behavior of a spring-mass
system might be signicant. If the mass of the plate is m, the
elastic constant of the springs supporting the plate is k
o
and the
coefcient of damping force c
o
for the vibration system in vac-
uum is negligible, the equation governing the dynamic behavior
of the vibration system in air is
m y +c
d
y +(k
o
+k
e
)y = F
o
sin t
where F
o
sin t is an external driving force with a radial fre-
quency . The steady response of the systemto the driving force
is
y() = A
o
sin(t +) (3.19)
where A
o
is the amplitude and is the phase lag:
A
o
=
F
o
m

1
(
2
a

2
)
2
+c
2
d

2
/m
2
(3.20)
= arctan
c
d

m(
2
a

2
)
(3.21)
where
2
a
= (k
o
+k
e
)/m =
2
o
+k
e
/m.
a
is a function of
because k
e
is a function of . Thus, the damping effect is greatly
related to the ratio of the natural vibration frequency
o
and the
cut-off frequency
c
, as discussed as follows.
3.3.1. Condition of
o

c
For MEMS devices such as high sensitivity accelerometers,
the free vibration frequency is low so that
o

c
. In this
case, the frequency range of interest is
o
(for
o
, the
amplitude is very small). In this frequency range, the coef-
cient of viscous damping force is approximately a constant c
do
and the elastic damping force is negligible (this means that the
M. Bao, H. Yang / Sensors and Actuators A 136 (2007) 327 9
Fig. 4. The curves for amplitudefrequency relation under the condition of

c
.
gas is incompressible). Thus, the amplitudefrequency rela-
tion is only determined by the damping ratio of the system at
low frequency, =c
do
/2m
o
. The curves in Fig. 4 show the
amplitudefrequency relations for three damping conditions:
under damping for <1, optimum damping for 0.7 and
over-damping for >1.
3.3.2. Condition of
o

c
For MEMS devices with
o

c
, the effect of squeeze lm
air damping on the amplitudefrequency relation is signicant.
Atypical relationship is shown by the curve in Fig. 5. The ampli-
tude starts todecline appreciablywhenthe frequencyapproaches

c
. The ratio of k
e
/k determines how far it may go. The value of
viscous damping force determines if the curve show a resonant
peak at a frequency larger than
o
and how high the peak is.
In this condition, both two damping components play important
roles on the dynamic performance of the system.
3.3.3. Condition of
o

c
For MEMS devices with
o

c
, the elastic constant of
the structure k
o
is large so that k
o
k
e
. At low frequency with
<
c
<
o
, the amplitudefrequency relation of the system is
basically a horizontal line. The amplitude decreases slightly
when approaches
c
due to the increase of the elastic damp-
ing force. However, the decrease is usually not signicant, as
k
e
k
o
. For >
o
, there will be a resonant peak at
res
, which
is larger than the free vibration frequency of the system, i.e.,
Fig. 5. A typical curve of amplitudefrequency relation under the condition of

c
.
Fig. 6. A typical curve of amplitudefrequency relation under the condition of

c
.

res
>
o
, due to the effect of the elastic damping force. The
peak might be high, as the viscous damping force is small at
high frequency. A typical amplitudefrequency relation for this
condition is shown in Fig. 6. The effect of viscous damping force
and elastic damping force on the dynamic behavior of the system
is usually slight, except for the condition that the lm thickness
is extremely small.
3.4. The verication of the effects of squeeze lm air
damping
To verify the effects of the two force components of squeeze
lm air damping on the dynamic performance of vibration sys-
tems, Andrews et al. [7] designed and fabricated a mass-loaded
silicon plate supported by four beams by using micro-machining
technology. The natural vibration frequency of the beam mass
structure is about 10 kHz. The chip to which these beams are
anchored is electro-statically bonded to a Pyrex glass on which
a cavity has been etched. The air gap between the plate and the
glass is about 2 m, which provides squeeze lmair damping for
the spring-mass system. The system is then used for the inves-
tigation of the squeeze lm air damping effect on the dynamic
behavior of the system.
As the plate is square in shape ( =1), the coefcient of
viscous damping force is
c
d
() =
64P
a
A

6
h
o

m,n odd
m
2
+n
2
(mn)
2
{(m
2
+n
2
)
2
+
2
/
4
}
(3.22)
and the coefcient of elastic force is
k
e
() =
64
2
P
a
A

8
h
o

m,n odd
1
(mn)
2
{(m
2
+n
2
)
2
+
2
/
4
}
(3.23)
To change the cut-off frequency of the system, the spring-mass
system was hermetically encapsulated in a chamber and the
chamber was evacuated to different vacuum levels.
At a pressure of 760 Torr, the cut-off frequency is about
9.5 kHz, which is close to the natural vibration frequency. As
the viscous damping force is very large and the damping ratio of
the system is much larger than unity, the amplitudefrequency
10 M. Bao, H. Yang / Sensors and Actuators A 136 (2007) 327
relation is somewhat like the over-damping curve shown in
Fig. 4.
At a pressure of 80 Torr, the cut-off frequency of the squeeze
lm damping is about 3.5 kHz, which is much smaller than the
free vibration frequency of the structure. As the viscous damping
force is still quite large, the damping ratio of the system is about
3. Thus, the amplitudefrequencyrelationis like the curve shown
in Fig. 5, with an apparent resonant peak.
At a pressure of 10 Torr, the cut-off frequency of the squeeze
lmdamping remains at about 3.5 kHz, but the viscous damping
force is reduced appreciably so that the systemis under-damped.
The amplitudefrequency relation is like the curve shown in
Fig. 6, with a high resonant peak.
Andrews et al. found that the experimental results agreed very
well with the prediction based on Blechs equations. Thus, the
basic theory of squeeze lm damping was veried.
3.5. The coefcients of viscous damping force for
incompressible gas
In many practical conditions, only lowfrequency behavior of
the vibration system is of interest, or, only the viscous damping
effect is important. These conditions include: (1) the cut-off fre-
quency of the squeeze lm damping is much larger than the free
vibration frequency of the vibration structure; (2) the damping
ratio of the vibration system is very large so that the vibration
amplitude is signicant only in low frequency range. As the
gas lm is not appreciably compressed in these cases, the gas is
incompressible. Thus, Reynolds equation (2.11) is applicable.
BasedonEq. (2.11), the coefcients of viscous dampingforce
for some typical plates have been derived in literatures [6,10,11].
3.5.1. Strip plate
For a strip plate with its length L much larger than its width
w=2a, the damping pressure can be found by direct integration
with trivial boundary conditions. The result is
p(x, t) =
6
h
3
(a
2
x
2
)
dh
dt
(3.24)
The damping force on the plate is
F
strip
=
_
w/2
w/2
p(x)Ldx =
w
3
L
h
3

h (3.25)
And the coefcient of damping force is
c
strip
=
Lw
3
h
3
(3.26)
3.5.2. Circular plate (dish plate)
For a circular plate, the Reynolds equation for squeeze lm
air damping can be written in a polar coordinate system as
1
r

r
_
r

r
p(r)
_
=
12
h
3

h (3.27)
The boundary conditions are
p(a) = 0,
dp
dr
(0) = 0 (3.28)
where a is the radius of the plate. By integrating Eq. (3.27) with
the boundary conditions, the damping pressure is found to be
p
cir
(r) =
3
h
3
(a
2
r
2
)

h (3.29)
The damping force on the circular plate is
F
cir
=
_
a
0
p(r)2r dr =
3
2h
3
a
4

h =
3
2
A
2
h
3

h (3.30)
where A=a
2
is the area of the plate. The coefcient of damping
force is
c
cir
=
3
2h
3
a
4
=
3
2h
3
A
2
(3.31)
3.5.3. Annular plate
For an annular plate, the Reynolds equation for squeeze lm
air damping is also Eq. (3.27), but the boundary conditions are
p(a) = 0, p(b) = 0
where a and b are the outer and inner radii of the annular plate,
respectively. BysolvingEq. (3.27) withthe boundaryconditions,
the damping pressure and the damping force on the annular plate
can be found. Then, the coefcient of damping force for an
annular plate is obtained:
c
ann
=
3a
2
A
2h
3
g() (3.32)
where A=a
2
, =b/a and g() is
g() = 1
4
+
(1
2
)
2
ln
(3.33)
3.5.4. Rectangular plate
Consider a rectangular plate with comparable side lengths
w=2a and L=2b as shown in Fig. 7. The boundary conditions
for squeeze lm problem are
p(a, y) = 0, p(x, b) = 0 (3.34)
The solution to the Reynolds equation for incompressible
gas, Eq. (2.11), is usually given in complicated series. There are
many forms of solution in literatures. The common conclusion
is that the coefcient of the damping force can be written as
c
rec
=
Lw
3
h
3
() (3.35)
Fig. 7. Rectangular plate with comparable edge lengths.
M. Bao, H. Yang / Sensors and Actuators A 136 (2007) 327 11
Fig. 8. The dependence of factor on the aspect ratio w/L.
where =w/L and () is a correction factor. The dependence
of () on is shown by the curve in Fig. 8. For a strip plate,
(0) =1, and for a square plate (i.e., w=L), (1) =0.42.
3.6. Amplitude effects
In the analyses given in above, the motion amplitude of the
plate is considered small. However, in many applications, the
disturbance amplitude may be comparable with the nominal
lm thickness. In this case, some amplitude effects should be
apparent.
SaddandStiffer [14] analyzedthe amplitude effect of squeeze
lm damping for small but nite squeeze number. By using
the normalized variables (with superimposed waves), for nite
oscillating amplitude, Eq. (2.7) can be written as

2

P
2
=
2

h
3

h) (3.36)
where =t and

h = h/h
o
1 + sin t.
Since the concern is with amplitude effects at low squeeze
number, Sadd and Stiffer [14] developed the pressure into a
power series in , i.e.

P = 1 +p
1
(x, ) +p
2
(x, )
2
+O(
3
) (3.37)
Terms up to and including O(
2
) are then retained in the
analysis. Using Eq. (3.37) in Eq. (3.36) gives the following
equations:
O() :
2
p
1
=
1

h
3

h (3.38)
O(
2
) :
2
p
2
=
1

h
3

hp
1
)
1
2

2
p
2
1
(3.39)
The boundaryconditions for the twoequations are that the damp-
ing pressure is zero on all outside boundary and the pressure
distribution has zero slopes at the center of the plate. Note that,
for small amplitude, the rst order equation, Eq. (3.38) is in fact
the equation for incompressible gas lm, Eq. (2.11). Based on
the equations, Sadd discussed four plates: strip, disk, annular
and rectangular, but only the results for strip and disk are given
below.
For strip lm, the normalized pressure distribution for nite
amplitude is
p( x, ) = 1 +
1
2

h
3
( x
2
1)

h +
1
24

h
6
{

h[ x
2
( x
2
6) +5]

h
[ x
2
(5 x
2
18) +13]

h
2
}
2
(3.40)
The normalized damping force on the plate is

F =
1
3

h
3

h +
2
15
_
_
_
1

h
5

h
5
2

h
2

h
6
_
_
_

2
(3.41)
Note that the normalized damping force is not only a function
of

h but also a function of

h and . A noticeable phenomenon

is that the temporal average of the damping force is nonzero:

F =
1
2
_
2
0

F d =

2
(4 +3
2
)
24(1
2
)
9/2

2
=
6
2
(4 +3
2
)
(1
2
)
9/2

2
l
4
P
2
a
h
4
o

2
(3.42)
The nonzero average of damping force means that there exists a
rectied force due to the non-linear behavior of the damping
force for large amplitude. The vibration rectication phe-
nomenon is indeed observed in silicon accelerometer by Christel
et al. [15]. However, it was not attributed to the effect of squeeze
lm air damping.
For disk plate, the temporal average of the damping force is

F =
5
2
(4 +3
2
)
768(1
2
)
9/2

2
=
15
2
(4 +3
2
)
16(1
2
)
9/2

2
l
4
P
2
a
h
4
o

2
(3.43)
From the highly nonlinear property, Sadd realized that the
damping force should be developed in a more general form:

F = A
o
+A
1
cos +B
1
sin +A
2
cos 2 +B
2
sin 2
+A
3
cos 3 +B
3
sin 3 + (3.44)
Using the orthogonal properties, the coefcient are given by
A
o
=

F; A
n
=
1

_
2
0

F() cos n d
and B
n
=
1

_
2
0

F() sin n d (3.45)

If the squeeze lm is modeled by an equivalent linear spring-
damper, we have
F(t) = k
d
y c
d
y (3.46)
The equivalent elastic constant of the squeeze lm air damping
for strip lm is
k
e,strip
=
2(1 +3
2
+3
4
/8)
15h
o
(1
2
)
9/2
P
a
Lw
2
(3.47)
12 M. Bao, H. Yang / Sensors and Actuators A 136 (2007) 327
and the coefcient of viscous damping force is
c
d,strip
=
Lw
3
h
o
3
(1
2
)
3/2
(3.48)
where L is the length and w the width of the strip plate.
Similarly, for a disk plate, the equivalent elastic constant of
the squeeze lm air damping is
k
e,disk
=
(1 +3
2
+3
4
/8)
48h
o
(1
2
)
9/2
P
a
a
2

2
(3.49)
and the coefcient of viscous damping force is
c
d,disk
=
3a
4
2h
3
o
(1
2
)
3/2
(3.50)
where a is the radius of the disk.
Obviously, the linear spring-damper approximation is only
valid when is not very large. Otherwise, higher harmonic force
components cannot be ignored.
Based on Sadds work [14], Starr [6] discussed the amplitude
effects on the viscous damping and the elastic damping.
3.6.1. The amplitude effect on viscous damping
Starr [6] noticed from [14] that the viscous damping force
for small squeeze number and large amplitude for circular and
rectangular plates can be calculated by multiplying respectively
the expressions for small amplitude, Eqs. (3.31) and (3.35), by
the function:
f
d
() =
1
(1
2
)
3/2
(3.51)
The dependence of f
d
on is shown in Fig. 9.
3.6.2. The amplitude effect on elastic damping
For strip plate, Starr found the ratio between the elastic con-
stant of squeeze lm air damping and the elastic constant of the
mechanical structure:
k
e,strip
k
= 0.8f
k
()

o
(3.52)
Fig. 9. The dependence of f
d
on .
And, for disk plate, he found:
k
e,disk
k
= 0.33f
e
()

o
(3.53)
where
o
=

k/m, =c
d
/2m
o
and
f
e
() =
1 +3
2
+3
4
/8
(1
2
)
3
(3.54)
The dependence of f
e
() on is also shown in Fig. 9.
3.7. Border effect
The squeeze lm damping of parallel plates presented in the
previous subsections are derived with trivial boundary condi-
tions, i.e., the gas at the borders is at ambient pressure. This
condition is a good approximation if the plate dimensions are
much larger than the lm thickness. However, in practical
devices the ow escaping from the borders might contribute
signicantly to the damping force. Experimental measurements
and simulation performed by Vemuri et al. [16] show that the
border effect considerably increases the damping force, even for
a ratio of lm width/thickness as high as 20.
In order to include the border effects on the analytically
model, an effective plate length L
eff
=L+L and an effective
plate width w
eff
=w+w are introduced. The values of the
effective length and width are such that the coefcient of damp-
ing force for the enlarged plate with trivial boundary conditions
has the same value as the coefcient of damping force of the real
device size with the border effects. That is, the elongations L
and w are used to model the effect of the border effect.
Naturally, the border effect depends on the geometry of the
gas outlet. There are two typical geometries of the border outlets.
If the top and bottom plates are identical and line up perfectly,
the outlet is symmetric for the gas ow at the border. Otherwise,
if the bottom plate is much larger than the top plate, the outlet is
non-symmetric for the gas owat the border. Obviously, the non-
symmetric border is more typical for practical MEMS devices.
Therefore, only the non-symmetric border is considered here.
Two methods have been proposed in literatures to compute
the elongations L and w.
3.7.1. Acoustic border conditions
Veijola and coworkers [17,18] considered that the ow chan-
nel continues outside the gas lm border and the border ow
can be modeled in a simple way. Assuming that the pressure
drops linearly in the extended length L/2 of the channel, they
obtained:
p
n

=
p|
L/2
L/2
(3.55)
where n is a direction normal to the border surface. Thus, a rst
order approximation for the effective length and effective width
due to the end effects are derived
L
eff
= L

1 +3A
L
(1 +4A
w
)
3/8

1 +3A
w
(1 +4A
L
)
1/8
(3.56)
M. Bao, H. Yang / Sensors and Actuators A 136 (2007) 327 13
Fig. 10. Schematic drawing of perforations (a) square array; (b) hexagon array.
w
eff
= w

1 +3A
w
(1 +4A
L
)
3/8

1 +3A
L
(1 +4A
w
)
1/8
(3.57)
where A
L
and A
w
are
A
L
=
8
3
1 +2.676K
0.659
n
1 +0.531K
0.5
n
(h/L)
0.238
h
L
(3.58)
A
w
=
8
3
1 +2.676K
0.659
n
1 +0.531K
0.5
n
(h/w)
0.238
h
w
(3.59)
For small Knudsen number (K
n
1) and small gas lm thick-
ness (L, wh), we have L
eff
L+8h/3 and w
eff
w+8h/3.
The results agree with that of [19].
3.7.2. Extraction of elongation through FEM simulations
Another method to predict the elongation caused by the
border effect on parallel surfaces was proposed by Vemuri
et al. [16] and Veijola et al. [20,21]. A series of two-
dimensional and three-dimensional FEM simulations were
performed and, based on the results, approximations for the
elongations were extracted. Veijola et al. obtained a very simple
conclusion:
L = 1.3h, w = 1.3h (3.60)
For high Knudsen number, the elongations is modeled as
a = 1.3(1 +3.3K
n
)h (3.61)
The simulations also showthat this model can be used for torsion
motion.
4. Squeeze lm air damping of hole-plate and slotted
plate
Moving plates in microstructures are sometimes perforated
or slotted to reduce the damping effect to a certain level
for some applications such as accelerometers, microphones,
micro-torsion mirrors, switches and relays, etc. Therefore, the
estimation of air damping force for a perforated or slotted plate
is important in designing the devices.
4.1. Squeeze lm air damping of innite, thin hole-plate
For a thin hole-plate, the squeeze lm damping effect can
be easily analyzed with some approximations [22,10,11]. For
simplicity, the plate is assumed to be perforated with circular
holes with radius r
o
and the holes are typically distributed in
a square or a hexagon array as shown in Fig. 10(a) and (b),
respectively. If the density of hole is n (in m
2
), the area of the
cell containing a hole is A
1
=1/n. The cell can be approximated
as an annulus with an outer radius of r
c
= 1/

n.
The damping force on the whole plate is the summation of
the damping force of each cell. So the damping force on a cell
is considered rst. As the squeeze number is usually small for
an annular plate, Eq. (3.28) for an annulus is used for the cell.
Under the approximations: (1) the hole plate is much larger
than a cell and all the cells are identical, so the air-ow between
the cells is negligible (the innite plate approximation); (2) the
plate is thinwhencomparedwiththe hole size sothat the pressure
difference causing the air owthrough the hole is negligible (the
thin plate approximation). Thus, the boundary conditions for
the cell are
P(r
o
) = 0,
P
r
(r
c
) = 0 (4.1)
By solving Eq. (3.28) with the boundary conditions, the damp-
ing pressure is found and the damping force on a single cell is
[22,10,11]:
F
1
=
3A
1
2
2h
3

h(4
2

4
4 ln 3) (4.2)
where is the ratio of r
o
/r
c
and A
1
is the area of a cell. Thus,
the total damping force on the perforated plate is
F
p
=
A
A
1
F
1
=
3A
2nh
3

hk() (4.3)
where A is the total area of the hole-plate and k() is
k() 4
2

4
4 ln 3 (4.4)
The dependence of k() on is given by the curve in Fig. 11,
showing that the perforation with large holes is very effective in
reducing the damping effect.
14 M. Bao, H. Yang / Sensors and Actuators A 136 (2007) 327
Fig. 11. The dependence of factor k on .
For a hole-plate with a nite area, the damping force is over
estimated by Eq. (4.3), as the air-ow through the borders of the
hole-plate has been neglected. To reduce the error, Davies et al.
[23] proposed an empirical correction scheme, assuming that the
dampingforce givenbyEq. (4.3) andthe dampingforce of a solid
plate of the same size work like two resistors in parallel. For
example, for a rectangular hole-plate, the squeeze lm damping
force, F
rec
, of a solid rectangular plate is found using Eq. (3.35).
Then the resultant damping force of the perforated plate, F
R
, is
determined by
1
F
R
=
1
F
p
+
1
F
rec
(4.5)
Though the empirical correction scheme is intuitive, it usu-
ally provides an improved estimation for practical applications.
The result is applicable for typical (but not all) thin hole-plates
fabricated using surface micromachining technology. However,
with the development of MEMS technology, thick plate can be
perforated with tiny holes by using deep reactive ion etching
(deep RIE, or ICP) technologies. For thick hole-plate, the above
analytical results are no longer accurate. Improvement in some
respects has to be considered:
(a) The damping effect of holes in thick plate:
For a thickhole-plate, the resistance tothe air owthrough
the holes might be large.
(b) The border effect:
For the above reason, an appreciable fraction of air might
ow out of the gap region through the borders instead of
the holes. In this case, the border effect is not negligible.
Theoretically, the problem should be treated by solving a
differential equation governing the damping pressure with
appropriate boundary conditions instead of using the intu-
itive equation, Eq. (4.5), for border effect.
(c) The end effect of hole:
For long and thin holes, the end effect is insignicant.
However, the end effect might be signicant for short holes
and has to be considered for many hole-plates in MEMS.
4.2. Squeeze lm air damping of innite, thick hole-plates
Among the three problems mentioned above, the damping
effect of air ow through the holes of a thick plate received
more attention than the others. A few studies were made early
this century on the problem. For the simplicity of analysis, the
hole-plate is considered innite in lateral dimensions so that the
border effect of the hole-plate is neglected and the analysis can
be made for a cell containing a hole at center.
Bao et al. [24] considered the damping effect of a circular
cell with a hole at the center. If the plate is large enough, the
lateral air ow between the neighboring cells is negligible. The
total damping pressure in a cell consists of the pressure caused
by the vertical Poiseuille ow through the hole and the pressure
caused by lateral air ow to the hole. Then, the expression is
found for minimum damping ratio of the structure.
Kwok et al. [25] treated the damping effect of air owin holes
by two methods. First, they established the modied Reynolds
equation in a square cell containing a square hole at center. The
zero-owboundary condition is used for the four outer cell walls
because the air ow between the neighboring cells is negligible
for innite hole-plate. The boundary condition for the four inner
sides was derived based on Poiseuille ow in the hole. Then the
damping pressure was numerically solved.
The second method used by Kwok et al. is to nd an approxi-
mate close form equation for the pressure caused by lateral ow
in the square cell. The total damping pressure is found by adding
the pressure component to the pressure caused by the air ow in
the hole.
Homentcovschi and Miles [26] treated the damping in a cell
of the hole plate basedonNavierStokes equations ina strict way
and considered the design for minimum damping coefcient for
a specic structure.
All the above methods assumed that the air ows in and out
of the plate region only through the holes. This means that the
hole-plate has innite lateral dimensions so that the pressure
distribution is identical for all the cells. The total damping force
on the hole-plate is obtained by multiplying the damping force
in a cell with the number of cells in the hole-plate.
To take into account the border effect for a nite, thick hole-
plate, a method with modied Reynolds equation for the whole
hole-plate must be considered.
4.3. Squeeze lm air damping of nite, thick hole-plate
Considering the impedance of the air ow through the holes,
Veijola et al. [27] added a terminto the linear Reynolds equation
and gave out a modied Reynolds equation for hole-plates. The
equation is then solved for a rectangular plate and the resulting
expression is implemented using an electrical equivalent circuit
model. They found that the simulated results agreed well with
the experimental measurement qualitatively. The quantitative
agreement is very good for small hole-size, but the simulation
predicted larger damping coefcients than measurement for hole
size larger than 3 m.
Considering the damping effect of air ow in the holes, Bao
et al. [24,28] derived a modied Reynolds equation for damping
pressure of hole-plates based on the principle of mass conser-
vation and force balance. The equation is linearized for small
amplitude to a modied Reynolds equation similar to that given
by Veijola et al. The Modied Reynolds equation can be solved
with boundary conditions of the hole-plate. As the derivation
M. Bao, H. Yang / Sensors and Actuators A 136 (2007) 327 15
Fig. 12. Schematic structure of a thick hole-plate (a) top view (b) cross-sectional view.
approach in [24,28] is more detailed and general in form, it is
reviewed as follows.
4.3.1. Modied Reynolds equation for hole-plates
For a plate perforated with holes of high density as shown
in Fig. 12, Bao et al. have established a nonlinear modied
Reynolds equation based on the principles of mass conservation
and force balance [24,28].

x
_
P
P
x
_
+

y
_
P
P
y
_
P
3
2
r
o
2
2h
3
H
p
()
=
12
h
3
(Ph)
t
(4.6)
where p is the damping pressure in the gas lm, P=P
a
+p (P
a
is
the ambient pressure), H the thickness of the plate, h the thick-
ness of the gas lm, r
o
the radius of the holes, r
o
/r
c
, r
c
the
radius of the cell. () in Eq. (4.6) is dened as
() 1 +
3r
4
o
16Hh
3
k()
where k() is dened by Eq. (4.4). For small squeeze number
and small uctuating amplitude, the modied Reynolds equation
can be linearized as

2
p
x
2
+

2
p
y
2

3
2
r
o
2
2h
3
H
1
()
p =
12
h
3
h
t
+
12
h
2
P
a
p
t
(4.7)
For incompressible gas, the second term on the right side
can be neglected:

2
p
x
2
+

2
p
y
2

3
2
r
o
2
2h
3
H
1
()
p =
12
h
3
h
t
(4.8)
According to Sharipov and Seleznev [19], the end effect of
the holes should be considered if the radius of the holes, r
o
, is
comparable to the thickness of the plate, H. In this case, the pipe
length H should be replaced by an effective length H
eff
:
H
eff
= H +
3r
o
8
(4.9)
4.3.2. Solution to a strip hole-plate
To demonstrate the nature of the squeeze lm damping of
thick hole-plate, a strip hole-plate with a width of w=2a is
considered. Thus, Eq. (4.8) becomes one-dimensional:

2
p
x
2

3
2
r
2
o
2h
3
H
eff
1
()
p =
12
h
3
h
t
(4.10)
By dening R=(12/h
3
)(h/t) and l =
_
2h
3
H
eff
()/3
2
r
2
o
(l is the attenuation length of damping
pressure), Eq. (4.10) can be simplied as

2
p
x
2

p
l
2
+R = 0 (4.11)
With boundary conditions p(a) =0, the damping pressure
is found as
p(x) = Rl
2
_
1 cosh(x/l)
cosh(a/l)
_
(4.12)
If the holes are very thin and/or the plate is very thick so
that the attenuation length l is much larger than a, Eq. (4.12)
reduces to Eq. (3.24). This means that the gas ow in the holes
is negligible and the damping of the hole-plate is that of a solid
plate. To another extreme, if the plate is very thin so that a l,
Eq. (4.12) reduces to Eq. (4.3); the damping force of the hole-
plate is that of an innite, thin hole-plate. The consistency with
the proven results at the two extremes justies the modied
Reynolds equation.
Generally, l is indeed much smaller than a, but has a nite
value sothat its effect onthe dampingpressure inthe border areas
cannot be neglected. Thus, Eq. (4.12) can be approximated as
p(x) = Rl
2
(1 e
(ax)/l
e
(a+x)/l
) (4.13)
This means that the damping pressure in the vast area
is p
o
=Rl
2
. However, the pressure drops exponentially when
approaching the borders. For example, for a =10l, the damp-
ing pressure across the plate is plotted in Fig. 13, where the
pressure has been normalized to p
o
.
From Eq. (4.12), the damping force on the strip hole-plate is
F
d
= 2aLRl
2
_
1
l
a
tanh
_
a
l
_
_
(4.14)
Fig. 13. Pressure distribution for a long rectangular hole-plate with a =10l.
16 M. Bao, H. Yang / Sensors and Actuators A 136 (2007) 327
And, the coefcient of damping force is
c = 2aL
8H
eff

2
r
2
o
_
1 +
3r
4
o
k()
16H
eff
h
3
__
1
l
a
tanh
_
a
l
_
_
(4.15)
For a l, i.e., tanh(a/l)

=1, we have
F
d

= 2(a l)LRl
2
(4.16)
and
c =
8H
eff

2
r
2
o
_
1 +
3r
4
o
k()
16H
eff
h
3
_
2L 2(a l) (4.17)
4.3.3. Effective damping area approximation
AccordingtoEq. (4.16), for a l, the dampingforce is equiv-
alently caused by the pressure distribution shown by the curve in
Fig. 14. Therefore, we may consider that the plate is only effec-
tive for damping in the width 2(a l), excluding the two border
regions with a width of l each. This is referred to as the effective
damping area approximation. Based on the approximation, for
a, b l, the damping force of a rectangular hole-plate is
F
d

= 4Rl
2
(a l)(b l) (4.18)
Similarly, the damping force on a circular hole-plate can be
approximated as
F
d

= Rl
2
(a l)
2
(4.19)
where a is the radius of the circular hole-plate. This scheme may
even be applicable to some hole-plate with irregular shape.
According to the denition of l, if the hole is large so
that r
4
o
H
eff
h
3
, we have () (3r
o
4
k()/16H
eff
h
3
) and
l r
c

k()/8. Thus, we have l <r

c
if only >0.06. There-
fore, the condition for effective damping area approximation
(a, b l) is equivalent to a, b r
c
or a, b >3r
c
. The effective
damping area approximation is reasonable if there are more than
six holes across the plate.
The analytical results by the modied Reynolds equation
agree well with the numerical analyses using the model proposed
by Mehner et al. [29] and the experimental data by Kim et al.
[30].
4.4. Squeeze lm air damping of slotted plate
Another scheme to reduce the squeeze lm air damping is to
use a plate with parallel slots (the slotted plate). The squeeze
lm air damping of some MEMS devices using movable grid
is similar to that of slotted plate [31]. Typically, the shape of
slotted plates is rectangular.
Fig. 14. Equivalent pressure distribution for a strip hole-plate with a =10l.
Fig. 15. Squeeze lm air damping in a thick slotted plate (a) top view; (b)
cross-sectional view.
With the method used in last section, a modied Reynolds
equation for squeezed lm air damping of slotted plate has been
derived by Sun et al. [32]. For a structure schematically shown
in Fig. 15, the equation for a slotted plate with nite thickness
is

2
p
x
2
+

2
p
y
2

4b
3
ah
3
H
1
()
p =
12
h
3

h (4.20)
where
() =
_
1 +
4ab
3
3h
3
H
(1 )
3
_
and =
b
a
For a slotted plate with a nite thickness (the length of
channel), the ow effect caused by the channel ends has to
be considered. According to Eq. (5.18) in [19], the geometric
height, H, should be replaced with an effective height, H
eff
, in
the equations:
H
eff
= H +
16
3
b (4.21)
The modied Reynolds equation, Eq. (4.20), can be solved
with the boundary conditions of the slotted plate. For a rectan-
gular slotted plate with its length much larger than its width, the
damping coefcient of the plate is found to be:
c =
24
h
3
Ll
2
_
w
2
l
_
(4.22)
where l =
_
ah
3
H()/4b
3
. The accuracy of the result has
been veried by ANSYS simulation. For a slotted plate with
2a =20 m, 2b =4 m, H=20 m, h =2 m, L=5 mm, and a
slot number of 19, the difference between the analytical result
and that of simulation is about 3%.
M. Bao, H. Yang / Sensors and Actuators A 136 (2007) 327 17
5. Squeeze lm air damping of rareed air
As described in above sections, air damping is directly pro-
portional to the coefcient of viscosity of air. The viscosity of
air derived based on a simple model [33] is
=
1
3

a
v (5.1)
where
a
is the mass density of gas, the mean free path of the
molecules and v is the average velocity of the molecules. As
a
is proportional to the pressure while is inversely proportional
to the pressure, the coefcient of viscosity, , is independent of
pressure p.
Experimental data show that the effect of air damping is
indeed almost constant when the air pressure is near the atmo-
spheric pressure. For example, the viscosity of air is 1.79
10
5
Pa s at 1 atm and the viscosity reduces to 1.61 10
5
Pa s
at 0.5 atm [34]. However, the experimental results show that the
air damping is reduced appreciably when the air is well below
one atmospheric pressure. Thus, the damping effect should
reduce accordingly.
There have been two basic approaches so far in considering
the damping in rareed air: the effective coefcient of viscos-
ity and the free molecular model. The rst approach suggested
that the equations for squeeze lm air damping remain effec-
tive in rareed air, but the coefcient of viscosity should be
replaced by an effective one,
eff
, which is dependent on the
pressure via Knudsen number K
n
=/d, where is the mean free
path of molecules and d the gap distance between the plate and
the substrate.
However, for a pressure much lower than an atmospheric
pressure, the collisions among the gas molecules are so reduced
that the gas can hardly be considered as a viscous uid. In this
case, the concept of effective viscosity would become question-
able. For K
n
1, i.e., the gap distance is much smaller than the
mean free path of the gas molecules, the viscous ow model is
no more valid and a free molecular model has to be considered
[35,36].
5.1. Effective coefcient of viscosity
For small Knudsen number (say K
n
>0.01), the Navier
Stokes equations can be used with a single modication: the
boundary conditions at uidwall interface are changed from
the standard non-slip condition to that of a slip-condition, i.e.,
the ow velocity of gas at the border with a stationary wall is
not zero. The owvelocity is related to the mean free path of the
gas and the gradient of the gas velocity in the direction normal
to the wall [37,38]:
u
wall
=
2
v

u
y

wall
(5.2)
where
v
is the tangential momentum accommodation coef-
cient (TMAC) and is dened as the fraction of molecules which
are diffusively reected. As is a function of air pressure, the
velocity at border u
wall
is an implicit function of the pressure.
The accommodation coefcient depends on the gas, the sur-
face material and roughness and is determined by experiments.
Experimental measurements [39] show that smooth silicon has
an accommodation coefcient of about 0.7 with several com-
monly used gases.
Even if the slip-ow theory is only valid for the condition of
lowKnudsen number, it is often used at much higher K
n
due to its
simplicitycomparedtoother approaches (solvingthe Boltzmann
equation or using direct simulation Monte Carlo computation).
For simple geometries the usage provides adequate results.
In gas lubrication theory, the non-slip boundary condition is
usually included in the viscosity coefcient, i.e., the slip-ow
condition is considered by replacing the coefcient of viscosity
inReynolds equationwiththe effective viscosity
eff
that takes
into account the rarefaction effects. The effective coefcient of
viscosity is commonly given in the form:

eff
=

1 +f(K
n
)
(5.3)
And the Reynolds equation becomes:

x
_
[1 +f(K
n
)]
Ph
3

P
x
_
+

y
_
[1 +f(K
n
)]
Ph
3

P
y
_
= 12
(hP)
t
(5.4)
There are quite a fewexpressions for f(K
n
) based on different
derivation considerations [4045]. The expressions are quite dif-
ferent in forms and even in values. Veijola et al. [46] presented a
comprehensive review on the expressions. Based on the analyt-
ical work using Boltzmanns transportation equation by Fukui
and Kaneko [42], Veijola et al. obtained a simple, empirical
approximation for the effective coefcient of viscosity:

eff
=

1 +9.658K
n
1.159
(5.5)
Based on Andrews experimental data [7], Li [47] gave a
similar approximation for the effective coefcient of viscosity:

eff
=

1 +6.8636K
0.9906
n
(5.6)
With the effective coefcient of viscosity, the squeeze lm
damping effect in rareed air is dependent on the dimensions
of the plate and the gap distance between the plates in the same
equation as it is in an atmospheric pressure.
The concept of effective viscosity coefcient for rareed air
is reasonable when the air pressures is not very low so that the
gas can still be considered as a continuum though the non-slip
boundary conditions have to be replaced by slip ones. However,
for a pressure much lower than an atmospheric pressure (i.e.,
K
n
1, the gap distance is much smaller than the mean free path
of the gas molecules, so that the viscous ow model is no more
valid), the collisions amongthe gas molecules are soreducedthat
the gas can hardly be considered as a viscous uid. In this case,
the concept of effective coefcient of viscosity would become
questionable and a free molecular model has to be considered.
For example, the mean free path of gas molecules is on the
order of 0.1 min an atmospheric pressure. However, for a pres-
18 M. Bao, H. Yang / Sensors and Actuators A 136 (2007) 327
sure of 1 Pa, the mean free path increases to about 1 cm, which
is much larger than the typical dimension of microstructures.
5.2. Christians model for rareed air damping
Christian proposed a free molecular model for damping in
low vacuum [35,48]. In the model, the interaction between gas
molecules is neglected and the damping force on an oscillating
plate is found by the momentum transfer rate from the vibrating
plate to the surrounding air through the collisions between the
plate and the molecules. The quality factor of the oscillating
plate is then found directly without relying on the coefcient
of viscosity in any form.
Consider the air damping force acting on a plate oscillating
in its normal direction (x-direction) as shown in Fig. 16. The
number of molecules in a unit volume with velocity in the range
of v
x
to v
x
+v
x
is dn =nf(v
x
)dv
x
, where f(v
x
) is Maxwellian
distribution function:
f(v
x
) =
_
m
2kT
e
mv
2
x
/2kT
where k is the Boltzmann constant (k =1.38 10
23
J/K). If the
moving speed of the plate is x, for the molecules in the velocity
range v
x
to v
x
+v
x
, the number of head-on collision in a unit
time on a unit area of front is
(v
x
+ x)dn 1 1 = n(v
x
+ x)f(v
x
)dv
x
As the change in momentum for each collision molecule is
2m(v
x
+ x), the pressure caused by the collisions on the front
plate surface is
P
f
= 2mn
_

x
(v
x
+ x)
2
f(v
x
)dv
x
(5.7)
Similarly, the pressure caused by the collisions on the back
of the plate surface is
P
b
= 2mn
_

x
(v
x
x)
2
f(v
x
)dv
x
(5.8)
The net damping force caused by collisions is F
r
=
A(P
f
P
b
), where A is the area of the plate. As the velocity
of the plate, x, is much smaller than that of the majority of the
gas molecules, according to Eqs. (5.7) and (5.8), the damping
Fig. 16. Collisions of an oscillating plate with head-on molecules.
force on the plate is
F
r

= 8mnA
_

0
v
x
xf(v
x
)dv
x
= 4
_
2

_
M
m
RT
PA x (5.9)
where M
m
is the molar mass of the gas and R=8.31 kg m
2
/(s
2
K)
is the universal molar gas constant. Eq. (5.9) shows that the
damping force decreases linearly with the pressure. The coef-
cient of damping force in rareed air by the model is
c
r
= 4
_
2

_
M
m
RT
PA (5.10)
And, the Q factor of the system in low vacuum is
Q
Chr
=
H
p

4
_

RT
M
m
1
P
(5.11)
where H is the thickness of the plate,
p
the mass density of the
plate and is the radial frequency of the plate.
Eq. (5.11) has beencomparedwithexperimental data byZook
et al. [49] and Guckel et al. [50]. The quality factor is indeed
inversely proportional to pressure P, but its value is overes-
timated by an order of magnitude, i.e., the damping force in
rareed air is underestimated by Christians model by an order
of magnitude.
To alleviate the problems, Kadar et al. [51] and Li et al. [52]
modied the calculation for Christians model and reduced the
difference between the theoretical results and the experimental
data appreciably. However, their modications are considered
incorrect [36,53].
As a matter of fact, the discrepancy between the results by
Christians model and the experimental data by Zook et al. [49]
stems from the fact that the effect of nearby substrate is not
considered by Christian model; Christian model is a model for
the air damping of an isolated subject but not for squeeze lm
air damping.
5.3. Energy transfer model for squeeze lm air damping
To overcome the difculty of Christians model, Bao et al.
[36] proposed a new free molecular model. With the model, the
squeeze lm damping can be considered as well as the damping
of an isolated object. As the model calculates the energy losses
through the collisions between the plate and the molecules, the
model is also referred to as the Energy Transfer model. The
model is introduced as follows.
5.3.1. Velocity change and energy transfer caused by
collisions
To calculate the energy transferred from the plate to the sur-
rounding air, let us rst consider the velocity change of a gas
molecule after its collision with a moving plate.
Consider that a plate moving on with a speed x makes a head-
on collusion with a gas molecule with a speed of v. As the mass
of the gas molecule m is much smaller than the mass of the plate
M, the gas molecule is bounced back with a speed:
v
+
= v +2 x (5.12)
M. Bao, H. Yang / Sensors and Actuators A 136 (2007) 327 19
Similarly, if a molecule makes a catch-up collusion on the rear
of the plate, the resulting speed of the molecule would be
v

= v 2 x (5.13)
Eqs. (5.12) and (5.13) show that the energy transferred by a
front collusion is different from that by a back collusion. The
difference is
e =
1
2
m[(v +2 x)
2
(v 2 x)
2
] = 4mv x
The energy loses caused by the collisions is related to the
quality factor of the oscillating plate. It has been found that the
quality factor found by using the energy transfer model is exactly
the same as the result obtained by Christian model [36].
5.3.2. Quality factor for squeeze lm air damping
For a plate oscillating with x =a
o
sin t near a stationary sub-
strate, as schematically shown in Fig. 17, if the nominal gap
distance is h
o
and the displacement of the oscillating plate is x,
the gap distance is h =h
o
x.
If the peripheral length of the gap is S, the boundary area of
the gas lm is S(h
o
x) and the number of molecules moving
across the boundary into the gap per unit time is
1
4
n vS(h
o
x) (5.14)
where n is the concentration of the molecules and v is the average
velocity of the molecules.
If a molecule enters into the gap with velocity components of
v
yzo
in the yz plane and v
xo
in the x-direction, it gains velocity in
the x-direction due to the collisions with the plate when traveling
in the gap. If the lateral traveling distance in the gap is l, the
time the molecule stays in the gap is t =l/v
yzo
, which is much
smaller than an oscillating cycle of the plate and the times of
collision in the time period are
N =
t v
xo
2(h
o
x)
=
lv
xo
2(h
o
x)v
yzo
(5.15)
As the molecule gains a speed increment of 2 x each time it
collides with the plate, the velocity in the x-direction at the end
of the traveling in the gap is
v
x
= v
xo
+N 2 x = v
xo
+
lv
xo
(h
o
x)v
yzo
x (5.16)
The extra energy gained by the molecule via collisions with the
plate is
e
k
=
1
2
m
_
2lv
2
xo
(h
o
x)v
yzo
x +
l
2
v
2
xo
(h
o
x)
2
v
2
yzo
x
2
_
(5.17)
Fig. 17. Squeeze lm air damping in rareed air.
Fig. 18. Comparison with experimental results of a beam (I: experimental data;
II: Christians model; III: the Energy Transfer model).
According to Eqs. (5.16) and (5.17), the average energy loss
of the plate in one vibration cycle is
E
cycle
=
1
4
n vS
1

_
2
0
ml
2
v
2
xo
2(h
o
x)v
2
yzo
a
2
o

2
cos
2
t d(t)
With some approximation in calculation, a close form result is
obtained:
E
cycle

=
Aa
2
o

8

a
v
S
d
o
(5.18)
According to the denition, the quality factor for squeeze
lm air damping by the Energy Transfer model is
Q
E,Sq
=
2E
P
E
cycle
= (2)
3/2

p
H
_
h
o
S
_

RT
M
m
1
p
(5.19)
where
p
is the mass density of plate and S =2L+2w.
From Eqs. (5.19) and (5.11), the quality factor by Energy
Transfer model, Q
E,Sq
, is related to that by Christians model,
Q
Chr.
, by
Q
E,Sq
=
16h
o
S
Q
Chr.
(5.20)
According to [49,50], the beam is 200 m long and
40 m wide, and the gap distance is 1.1 m. Thus, we have
Q
E,Sq
=0.115Q
Chr.
. As a result, the Energy Transfer model
matches the experimental data much better than that of Chris-
tians model as illustrated by Fig. 18.
6. Squeeze lm air damping of torsion micro-mirrors
In recent years, more and more torsion micro-mirrors have
beenusedina varietyof MEMSdevices, suchas optical displays,
light modulator and optical switches. As the squeeze lm air
damping is the key factor to the dynamic performances of the
mirror, it has been investigated extensively in recent years.
A typical micro-mirror is schematically shown in Fig. 19,
where is the tiltingangle of the mirror plate. As the gapdistance
h =h
o
x and the moving speed of the plate x are not uniform,
20 M. Bao, H. Yang / Sensors and Actuators A 136 (2007) 327
Fig. 19. Schematic structure of a rectangular torsion mirror.
the coefcient of damping torque is a function of the tiling angle
. Obviously, the analysis of squeeze lmair damping of torsion
mirrors is more difcult than that of a parallel plate actuator.
As the tilting angle of micro-mirror is generally small (10

),
the squeeze lm air damping of micro-mirror is approximately
governed by the Reynolds equation (2.3).
6.1. Damping of a strip mirror plate at balance position
The simplest condition to analysis is a strip torsion mirror,
i.e., a torsion micro-mirror with its length (L=2b, in the axial
direction) much larger than its width (w=2a). In this condition,
Eq. (2.3) becomes one dimensional:
d
2
p
dx
2
=
12
(h
o
x)
3
x (6.1)
If the plate is moving around its balanced position ( =0) with an
innitesimal angular amplitude, the above equation is simplied
as
d
2
p
dx
2
=
12
h
o
3
x (6.2)
With trivial boundary conditions, p(x a) =0, the damping pres-
sure is found to be
p(x) =
2
h
3
o
x(a
2
x
2
) (6.3)
From Eq. (6.3), the torque of damping force is
T
d
=
_
+a
a
xp(x)Ldx =
16ba
5
15h
3
o
(6.4)
Therefore, the coefcient of damping torque for innitesimal
tilting angle is
c

(0) =
Lw
5
60h
3
o
=
16ba
5
15h
3
o
(6.5)
This is the same result as Eq. (30) of Veijola et al. [21] and
Eq. (15) of Wei et al. [54].
6.2. Damping of a rectangular mirror plate at balance
position
Pan et al. [34] made a general analysis of squeeze lm air
damping for a rectangular mirror plate. They started with the
nonlinear isothermal Reynolds equation for compressible gas.
By using the normalized variables, the equation takes the form:

x
_

h
3
p
p
x
_
+

y
_

h
3
p
p
y
_
=
d(

h p)
d
(6.6)
where = 12L
2
/P
a
h
2
o
. They considered a small, sinusoidal
angular oscillation of the plate around the balanced position
with a radial frequency of . The normalized amplitude of the
vibration is . Thus, the normalized thickness of the air lm
(with =t) is

h = 1 + x sin( +) (6.7)
Under the assumption of small displacement and harmonic
response of the mirror, Panet al. linearizedEq. (6.6) and, withthe
trivial boundary conditions, found the analytical expressions of
damping torque for a rectangular torsion mirror both in Fourier
series and in double sine series. The damping torque in double
sine series is
T
d
=
16Lw
3
p
a

4
h
o
_

odd m

even n

2
m
2
n
2
1
[(m)
2
+(n/)
2
]
2
+
2
+
1

odd m

even n

m
2
n
2
(m)
2
+(n/)
2
[(m)
2
+(n/)
2
]
2
+
2
_
(6.8)
where ( w/L is the aspect ratio of the rectangular plate. Based
on Green function method, Darling et al. have obtained the same
result [12].
Pan et al. found that the Fourier series solution and the double
sine solution yield almost identical nal results. As the damping
torque in Fourier series is a more complicated than the one in
double sine series, it is not given here. Pan et al. also veried the
analytical results by numerical calculation based on the nonlin-
ear isothermal Reynolds equation and by the experiments on the
dynamic behavior of micro-mirrors.
The damping torque given in Eq. (6.8) consists of two terms:
the term in direct proportion to the angular displacement corre-
sponds to the elastic damping and the term in direct proportion
to the angular speed corresponds to the viscous damping.
Pan et al. found that the effect of elastic damping force on
the damping torque is small relative to the viscous damping
force in the range of general interest and thus is negligible when
the squeeze number is small. This conclusion is consistent with
the results given by Langlois [2] and Starr [6]. Pan et al. also
M. Bao, H. Yang / Sensors and Actuators A 136 (2007) 327 21
concluded that, with the elastic damping force neglected, the
analytical results were valid for non-harmonic response.
Since the moving directions of plate on the two sides of
the axis are opposite, the squeeze lm effects on the two sides
are canceled out somewhat. Therefore, the cut-off frequency of
squeeze lm damping of a torsion micro-mirror is apparently
larger than that of the parallel plate actuator with the same plate
area. Therefore, it is easier for the torsion micro-mirror to meet
the incompressible gas condition of the same plate dimensions
and working frequencies. Under this condition, the analysis can
be simplied signicantly.
When the spring effect is neglected, the damping coefcient
for small squeeze number is
c
d
() =
192Lw
5

6
h
o
3

odd m

even n
1
m
2
n
2
[m
2

2
+n
2
]
(6.9)
For a strip torsion mirror, is zero. Thus, we have
c
d
(0) =
192Lw
5

6
h
3
o

odd m

even n
1
m
2
n
4

=
Lw
5
60h
3
o
(6.10)
This result is consistent with Eq. (6.5).
As Eq. (6.9) converges very fast, Pan et al. proposed to use
the rst term of Eq. (6.9) as a simple approximation. Thus, they
gave
T
d
=
48

6
(
2
+4)
Lw
5
h
3
o
(6.11)
This formula is very similar to the formula given by Kurth et al.
[55]:
T
d
= K
rot
Lw
5
h
3
o
(6.12)
where K
rot
is 0.01764 for the case of =w/L=1. However,
according to Eq. (6.11), the correspondent coefcient K
rot
is
0.010 for =1, whereas the exact K
rot
for =1 from Eq. (6.9)
is 0.0116. The value provided in [55] is a little too large.
Hao et al. [56] also treated the nonlinear isothermal Reynolds
equation for small rotation motion of a rectangular torsion mir-
ror, but the equation was solved with Greens function method.
The coefcient of damping torque is
c
d
() =
48L
4
w
2
h
3
o

m=1

n=1

2
mn

mn
() (6.13)
where
mn
is a complicated function of m, n, L and w [56] but

mn
has a familiar look to us:

mn
() =
(m)
2
+(n/)
2
[(m)
2
+(n/)
2
]
2
+
2
(6.14)
Based on the analytical expressions, Hao et al. discussed the
inuence of design parameters.
Minikes et al. [57] treated the nonlinear isothermal Reynolds
equation for small rotation motion of a rectangular torsion mirror
alsowithGreens functiontechnique. The coefcient of damping
Fig. 20. The dependence of geometric correction factor (a/b) on the aspect
ratio a/b.
torque found takes the form:
c() =
192Lw
5

6
h
3
o

n=1,2,...

m=1,2,...
1
(2n)
2
(2m1)
2
1
(2n)
2
+(2m1)
2

2
(6.15)
Though the summation looks quite different with that of Pan et
al., it has been checked for =0 and =1 that Minikes result
agrees very well with that of Pan et al.
The common problem of the above-mentioned papers is that
the damping effect is only considered for small angular displace-
ment around the balanced position ( =0). Another problem of
these works is that the results are given by complicated equa-
tions; the application of the results is difcult.
For the ease of applications, the coefcient of damping torque
can be written as
c() c(0)
_
a
b
_
(6.16)
where (a/b) is a correction factor for the aspect ratio of the
rectangular plate. (a/b) is shown by the solid line in Fig. 20,
where the correction factor for squeeze lm air damping of a
parallel actuator is also shown in the gure by dash line for
comparison.
6.3. Damping of a rectangular torsion mirror at a nite
tilting angle
The squeeze lm damping of a rectangular mirror at a nite
tilting angle is analyzed by Bao et al. [58] based on the nonlin-
ear Reynolds equation, Eq. (2.3), for a nite tilting angle. For
simplicity, only the dominating component, the viscous force,
is considered.
For a nite tilting angle, the non-uniformity of gap distance,
h =h
o
x, has to be considered. As the damping pressure p is
usually much smaller than the ambient pressure P
a
, Eq. (2.3)
can be developed to
P
a
_

2
p
x
2
+

2
p
y
2
_
+
_
_
p
x
_
2
+
_
p
y
_
2
_
=
12
h
2
p
t

12
h
3
P
a

t
x +
3P
h
p
x
(6.17)
22 M. Bao, H. Yang / Sensors and Actuators A 136 (2007) 327
Fig. 21. The dependence of angular correction factor () on .
It has been found that, under the condition of
4a
2

/h
2
p
max
(where is the normalized tilting angle,
=a/h), Eq. (6.17) is simplied to
_

2
p
x
2
+

2
p
y
2
_
=
12
(h
o
x)
3
x (6.18)
Therefore, the air damping of a rectangular mirror is related
to the aspect ratio a/b as well as the tilting angle. As a nal result,
the coefcient of damping torque can be given as follows:
c

_
a
b
,
_
c

(0, 0)()
_
a
b
,
_
(6.19)
Based on the coefcient of damping torque for strip plate at
balanced position, c(0,0), () gives the correction for nite
tilting angle and (a/b,) gives the correction for the nite aspect
ratio of the plate. The expression for () has been found in a
close form:
() =
45
4
3
_
4

+
2
3(1
2
)
+
_
1
3

2

2
_
ln
_
1 +
1
__
(6.20)
The expression for (a/b,) is too complicated to be given here
[58]. As the expressions for () and (a/b,) are rather com-
plicated, they are shown here by the curves in Figs. 21 and 22,
respectively. Further discussionbasedonthe above results shows
that, to satisfy the condition for Eq. (6.18), the normalized tilting
angle should not exceed 0.7.
Fig. 22. The dependence of correction factor (a/b,) on a/b and .
6.4. Damping of torsion mirror in rareed air
To reduce the squeeze lm air damping effect, torsion mir-
rors are sometime encapsulated in vacuum. Therefore, the
quality factor of torsion mirrors in rareed air is an impor-
tant parameter of concern and needs to be evaluated at design
stage.
Minikes et al. [57] utilized Baos energy transfer model [36]
to the case of torsion mirrors for low vacuum. They used a sim-
plied model, where the movements of the two portions of the
plate on the two sides of the axis are considered as in oppo-
site normal directions. With this simplied model, they adapted
the energy transfer model for a torsion mirror by modifying the
peripheral length appropriately. The peripheral of a single plate,
2L+2w, is now replaced by the sum of the peripherals of the
two portions, S =4L+2w. Thus, the quality factor of the system
is
Q
E,Sq
=
2E
P
E
cycle
= (2)
3/2
H
_
d
o
2w +4L
_

RT
M
m
1
p
(6.21)
where L and ware length and width of the mirror plates, respec-
tively.
Minikes et al. [57] compared the model with experimen-
tal measurement with two dedicated mirror devices. They
found that the agreement of the theory with the experimen-
tal data is general good, but deteriorates as the gap distance
decreases.
7. Simulation of squeeze lm air damping
The analytical research has been reviewed in above sec-
tions. As the analytical solutions are inherently limited to simple
geometries, the real MEMSstructures are usually too complex to
be treated with analytical model and, thus, numerical simulation
is often used to obtain a more accurate result at the nal stage
of device design. The simulation of the squeeze lm damping
can be generally divided into two levels: the physics level and
the system level.
The physics level methods treat the damping on the con-
tinuous eld by solving the Reynolds equation or the Navier
Stokes equations with the nite element method (FEM)
[6,20,29,5961]. Though, in principle very accurate results can
be obtained, it might be prohibitive inmanycases due tothe com-
plex geometries and the couplings to the other energy domains.
The accuracy and the complexity of the model have to be com-
promised.
The system level methods treat the damping effect with
the reduced order models, which are easily integrated into the
system level models of the whole electro mechanical devices.
Though in the early stages the systemmodels were considered to
be less physics transparency and not t for the predictive simu-
lation, the differences between the system level and the physics
level methods become vague. Several equivalent circuit mod-
els treat the damping with Reynolds equation and give accurate
results with very little computation time [6166].
M. Bao, H. Yang / Sensors and Actuators A 136 (2007) 327 23
7.1. Physics level simulation
It was only in recent years that Reynolds equation was inte-
grated in the commercial simulation tools. Several methods were
developed to simulate the squeeze lm air damping before the
commercial simulation tools were available.
It was proposed by Starr that the squeeze lmdamping effect
can be simulated with the thermal analog with the small ampli-
tude assumption [6]. The linearized Reynolds equation and the
thermal equation are [29]:

2
p
x
2
+

2
p
y
2
=
12
h
3
0
dh
dt
+
12
h
2
0
p
0
p
t
(7.1)
and

2
T
x
2
+

2
T
y
2
= Q+c
p
T
t
(7.2)
respectively. By replacing the temperature T with p, the ther-
mal conductivity with h
3
/12, the heat source density Q with
dh/dt and letting the product of the density and the specic
heat c
p
be unity, both the viscous damping force and the elas-
tic damping force are simulated with the thermal analysis [29].
The viscous damping force results from the real part of the pres-
sure integral while the elastic damping force fromthe imaginary
part.
When the tilting angle is small, the linearized Reynolds equa-
tion, Eq. (7.1), is valid for a torsion structure. The damping
of the torsion structures can be simulated by varying the heat
source density Q=dh/dt on the plate surface according to
the speed distribution of the torsion plate [29]. The thermal
analogy takes much less computing time than the uid ow
analysis. It is possible to simulate the complex geometries and
the perforated structures without considering the effects of the
holes.
The effect of the high Knudsen number in the gap is usu-
ally treated with the effective coefcient of viscosity. The slip
boundary conditions are included with the surface accommoda-
tion coefcient. The amplitude effects are not able to be obtained
with the thermal analogy because the linearized Reynolds equa-
tion, Eq. (7.1), is valid for small amplitude, as discussed in
Section 2. As Reynolds equation is valid only when the pres-
sure drop across the gap is negligible, the fringe effects caused
by the edges are not included in the model and the widths of
plates must be much larger than the gaps. However, the elon-
gation models [16,20] may be employed to include the fringe
effects caused by the edges.
The squeeze lm air damping is able to be simulated with
the commercial simulation tools for uid ow, which are based
on the NavierStokes equations [29,67,68]. When the vibration
amplitude is small, the damping of the parallel plates can be
simulated with the channel ow model shown in Fig. 23. The
channel has the same size as the gap between the moving and
the xed plate. According to the non-slip boundary condition,
the gas near the moving plate moves with the plate. Therefore,
it is reasonable to model the moving plate as an inlet with the
gas ow v
normal
=

h and v
parallel
=0, where

h is the speed of
Fig. 23. Channel ow model of the parallel plates.
the moving plate. The squeeze lm air damping can be simu-
lated with uid simulation programs such as CFD-ACE[67] and
ANSYS/FLOTRAN [59].
The ANSYS/FLOTRAN model of the structure in Fig. 23 is
shown in Fig. 24(a), where only the gap is shown. The velocities
on the moving plate are set as V
x
=0, V
y
=

h, while the velocities
on the xed plate are zero. The pressures at the edges are set to be
0 (trivial boundary conditions). Then, the coefcient of damping
force is obtained by [29]:
c = Re
__
pdA

h
_
(7.3)
The elastic damping force can be simulated by a transient anal-
ysis for compressible gas [29].
The border effect at the edges can be considered by applying
the ambient pressure in a distance from the moving plate, as
shown in Fig. 24(b). The perforated structures are simulated with
the similar methods [28,32]. As the assumptions for Reynolds
equation, such as the small gap, uniform pressure distribution
across the gap, negligible uid velocity normal to plate surface,
are relaxed, the additional damping effects caused by the ow
in the edges and perforations are included.
The squeeze lm air damping of torsion structures can be
simulated by varying the ow rate on the moving plate surface.
As NavierStokes equations are used, the damping at large tilt-
ing angles can be simulated. Large amplitude effects can also
be simulated with the tools based on NavierStokes equations
[68].
Though the models based on NavierStokes equations are
more accurate than the models based on Reynolds equation, a
complete model of real structure is usually too complex to be
solved. For example, it takes hours to simulate the damping force
of a pair of perforated parallel plates with trivial boundary con-
ditions with the incompressible gas option, in which the moving
plate is 81 m81 m4.3 m with a 15 m15 m rect-
angular hole in the center and the gap between the plates is 2 m.
As a comparison, the viscous damping force and the elastic force
of the same structure can be obtained within a few seconds with
Reynolds equation based models. The NavierStokes equations
based methods are better t for studying the damping effects
[16,20] than for design purpose.
Reynolds equation has been included in commercial tools.
In ANSYS [59], squeeze lm damping is simulated with the
linearized Reynolds equation, Eq. (7.1). Due to the similarity
between Eqs. (7.1) and (7.2), the method in ANSYS has the
similar properties as the thermal analog method, except that the
hole effects of perforated structures have been included with
HagenPoiseuille equation [59]. As HagenPoiseuille equation
24 M. Bao, H. Yang / Sensors and Actuators A 136 (2007) 327
Fig. 24. Models of the parallel plates used in ANSYS/FLOTRAN: (a) for trivial boundary conditions; (b) with border effects.
models the ow of incompressible gas, the spring effect caused
by the gas ow in holes is neglected. The effects of the high
Knudsen number and the slip boundary condition are included
as real constants of the elements. The end effect of short holes
is treated with the method presented by Sharipov and Seleznev
[19]. The torsion structures can be simulated when the gaps are
approximately uniform. The amplitude effects are not consid-
ered because the linearized Reynolds equation is derived with
the small amplitude assumption.
In Coventerware, a hybrid approach called NavierStokes
Reynolds (NSR) is developed [60,61], which uses the Navier
Stokes equations to obtain the ow resistances of the critical
areas (such as holes and edges) and inputs the owresistances of
the border effects into Reynolds equation to obtain the damping
and the elastic forces.
7.2. System level simulation
System level methods treat the damping effects with the
reduced order models. Equivalent circuit models are the dom-
inant methods as they are easily integrated into the hierarchy
models of the whole electro mechanical systems, which are
solved with commercial EDA tools.
In the simplest models, the coefcients of the viscous damp-
ing force and the elastic damping force are extracted by the
analytical models or the FEM tools and modeled with equiv-
alent components. The method is less physics transparent and
the coupling between the uid domain and the other physics
domains is difcult to simulate.
The equivalent circuits are also used to model the solutions
of the analytical models [17,18,20,21,27,46]. Parallel branches
of RL components are used to model the series solutions of
the analytical models. With the compact models developed by
Veijola et al., the viscous and the elastic effects of quite a few
structures can be integrated into the system level models. To
obtain the accuracies and the exibilities beyond the analyti-
cal models, researchers use the similar circuits to model the
solutions of the FEM simulations [16,68].
Reynolds equation itself can be modeled with equivalent cir-
cuits as the balance equations of the gas ow have the similar
forms as the circuit equations [6266,13]. Accurate results can
be obtainedefcientlyandthe couplingbetweendampingeffects
and the effects in the other physics domains can be simulated.
A simple example is discussed to illustrate the principles of
the equivalent circuit model of Reynolds equation. Reynolds
equation is derived with the balances of the mass ows and the
forces. For incompressible gas, the balance of the mass ow
requires:
q
x
x
+
q
y
x
+
h
t
= 0 (7.4)
which is equivalent to the conservation of the currents (Kirch-
hoffs current law) if the mass ows are equivalent to the currents
and h/t is equivalent to a current source. The mass ows are
[10,11]:
q
x
=
h
3
12
_
P
x
_
(7.5)
q
y
=
h
3
12
_
P
y
_
(7.6)
The above equations are equivalent to the IV relations of the
resistors dR
x
=(12/h
3
) dx and dR
y
=(12/h
3
) dy if P is equiva-
lent to the voltage. A one-dimensional equivalent circuit model
for a strip plate is obtained by discretizing Eqs. (7.4)(7.6), as
shown in Fig. 25 [13]:
R
i
= R =
12w
(2n +1)Lh
3
(7.7)
I
i
= I =
wL

h
2n +1
(7.8)
where w is the width and L is the length of the strip plate. The
voltage at each node is equal to the pressure, which can be solved
analytically in the case of Fig. 25:
p
i
= V
i
=
n

m=ni+1
mIR (7.9)
The damping force is obtained by
F =

i
p
i
wL
2n +1
=
2n(n +1)(4n 1)
(2n +1)
3
w
3
L
h
3

h (7.10)
Fig. 25. One-dimensional equivalent circuit model for the incompressible gas
damping.
M. Bao, H. Yang / Sensors and Actuators A 136 (2007) 327 25
When n , the damping force is
F =
w
3
L
h
3

h (7.11)
which is equal to the analytical solution of strip plates.
As Reynolds equation is modeled, the method is accurate
and exible. Complex geometries can be meshed and modeled
with a corresponding net-list. Perforated structures are sim-
ulated by including the equivalent resistors representing the
effects of holes. The effects of edges can also be included by
connecting additional equivalent resistors in series at appropri-
ate positions. Both the viscous damping effect and the elastic
damping effect are simulated accurately and efciently with the
equivalent model [64,65]. Recently, Schrag et al. extend their
model to torsion structures and set up a reduced order model to
simulate the dampingfor large scale, highlyperforatedstructures
efciently and yet accurately enough [66].
In the new releases of Coverterware, the Finite Element
Method is employed to discretize the Reynolds equation and
the model order reduction technique [69] is employed to gener-
ate system level models with very small number of degrees of
freedom [61,70], which are fast, yet accurate enough.
7.3. Squeeze lm damping in the free molecular region
All of the simulation tools above are based on the continuum
models, which are valid when the Knudsen number is small [53].
The effective viscosity method extends the validity. However,
when the Knudsen number is larger than 10, the free molecular
model is more reasonable.
Hutcherson et al. developed a one-dimensional molecular
dynamics simulation code [53] based on the energy transfer
model proposed by Bao et al. [36]. However, some of the
assumptions employed in Baos energy transfer model (Say,
the constant particle velocity, the constant beam position and
the constant change in particle velocity) are relaxed. The sim-
ulation result showed better agreement with the experimental
data published by Zook et al. [49] than the results based on the
continuum models with effective viscosity, as shown in Fig. 26.
Fig. 26. Quality factor comparison of different results.
Acknowledgements
The authors research on squeeze lm air damping has been
supported by the Key Basic Research and Development Pro-
gram of China (No. G1999033101) and by the National Science
Foundation of China (No. 69876009).
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Biographies
Minhang Bao graduated from Fudan University, Shanghai, China and joined
the faculty of the Physics Department in 1961. He nished his graduate study
on solid-state physics in 1966. Since 1983 he has been with the Electronic
Engineering Department of Fudan University, where he is currently a professor.
He is on the editorial boards of several International and Chinese Journals on
sensors and actuators. He is the author of Micro Mechanical Transducers
(Elsevier, 2000), Analysis and Design Principles of MEMS Devices (Elsevier,
2005), and a number of technical papers. His current research interest is on
micro-mechanical transducers and technologies.
Heng Yang received the BS and PhD degrees in electronic engineering from
Fudan University, Shanghai, China, in 1995 and 2001, respectively. He worked
as a post doctor in Delft University of Technology from2001 to 2003. He is now
with Shanghai Institute of Microsystem and Information Technology (SIMIT),
Chinese Academy of Sciences. His research interests include mechanical sen-
sors, simulation and modeling, and micro-/nano-fabrication technologies.