Post by Michele Rosso

🚀 Thrilled to share our latest publication on the characterization of piezoelectric MEMS with AlN thin films, just published in the European Journal of Mechanics / A Solids (#Elsevier) within the Special Issue “In Honor of Professor Jean Lemaitre, Founder of the European Journal of Mechanics.” In this work, we propose a synergistic methodology combining dynamic testing, static profilometry, and an enhanced reduced-order model to provide a comprehensive electromechanical characterization of MEMS devices. Our approach reliably extracts key parameters. These include the piezoelectric constant, dielectric constant, electromechanical coupling factor, and quality factor. Applied to an AlN MEMS cantilever, the methodology shows strong agreement with reference literature and proves versatile for both beam- and plate-like structures. This framework paves the way for future studies on innovative materials and for analyzing MEMS under real operating conditions. The work was carried out in collaboration between Politecnico di Milano and STMicroelectronics. Special thanks to my co-authors for the excellent collaboration: Federico Maspero, Annachiara Esposito, Tarek Afifi Afifi, Manuel Riani, Gabriele Gattere, Andrea di Matteo, PhD, Alberto Corigliano, and Raffaele Ardito. We are proud to dedicate this work to the memory of Professor Jean Lemaitre, who recently passed away. Discover the full study here: https://lnkd.in/dAe7Uzu6 #SmartMaterials #SmartStructures #MEMS #Piezoelectric #Microengineering #Sensors #Actuators #EnergyHarvesting #Dynamics #Research #Innovation #Elsevier