A kinetic approach for the evaluation of damping in micro-electro-mechanical systems devices vibrating at high frequencies.

The mechanism leading to gas damping in Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) devices vibrating at high frequencies is investigated by using the linearized Boltzmann equation based on the ellipsoidal statistical (ES) model. Knowing that walls with different physical structures are used in designing micromachines, general boundary conditions of Maxwell's type have been considered to describe the gas-wall interactions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]