Electrostatically balanced comb drive for controlled levitation

Author

Tang, William C. ; Lim, Martin G. ; Howe, Roger T.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electr. Eng. & Comput. Sci., California Univ., Berkeley, CA, USA

fYear

1990

fDate

4-7 June 1990

Firstpage

23

Lastpage

27

Abstract

An experimental study of the levitation force, normal to the substrate, associated with interdigital capacitor electrostatic comb lateral actuators is reported. For compliant suspensions, normal displacements of over 2 mu m for a comb bias of 30 V were observed. This phenomenon is due to electrostatic repulsion by image charges mirrored in the ground plane beneath the suspended structure. By electrically isolating alternating drive-comb fingers and applying voltages of equal magnitude and opposite sign, levitation can be reduced by an order of magnitude while reducing the lateral drive force by less than a factor of two.<>

Keywords

electric actuators; electrostatic devices; micromechanical devices; 30 V; comb bias; compliant suspensions; controlled levitation; drive-comb fingers; electrostatic repulsion; image charges; interdigital capacitor electrostatic comb lateral actuators; lateral drive force; levitation force; Drives; Electrostatic actuators; Electrostatic levitation; Fingers; Force control; Resonance; Substrates; Suspensions; Vibrations; Voltage;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Solid-State Sensor and Actuator Workshop, 1990. 4th Technical Digest., IEEE

Conference_Location

Hilton Head Island, SC, USA

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/SOLSEN.1990.109812

Filename

109812