Electrostatic actuators with long range translation

A general design and development of an electrostatic translational microsystem based on the Inchworm/sup /spl reg// principal of actuation is presented. The inchworm microsystem consists of an oscillating electrostatically actuated driver arm, and two synchronous electrostatic clamps to control direction. Actuation step size is delimited with an additional spring loaded electrostatic actuator, which adjusts the oscillation amplitude of the driver arm in the range of 0.05 /spl mu/m-2/spl mu/m. The translational microstage actuation requires no direct electrical wiring to power the actuations. Voltage to the microstage is delivered through coupled series capacitors allowing all external electrical connections to reside on the stationary substrate. Precision translation is provided by dovetail microjoints that constrain microstage motion. The inchworm microsystem is capable of arbitrarily large translation distances with nanometer resolution.