Bistability-latching criteria in pre-pressurised and electrostatically actuated curved microplates

The study of electrostatically actuated microplates in the presence of a mechanical pressure can further their usage as static pressure/mass sensors. The study was carried out using the Föppl-von-Kármán plate model, from which a reduced order (RO) model was derived that includes both loadings. Bistability criteria were extracted semi-analytically using Berger's plate model, from which a single degree-of-freedom was taken from its RO counterpart. It was found that in the presence of pressure, bistability interacts with latching in a new manner, requiring two conditions to ascertain if a microplate becomes bistable.