Innovative actuators and tools for micro-nano mechatronics

Applications of actuators have increased in various fields. In industry, precise and high speed positioning is one of the most important technologies. In peripheral machines for computers like disc memories, small and thin actuators are necessary to satisfy the demand of reduction of thickness and weight of the products. In some cases conventional actuators seem to be difficult to satisfy these new and advanced demands. Therefore, seeking for new actuators has been activated recently. Especially, in the field of MEMS, where the dominant physical rules are different from those of the usual size, new small actuators utilizing electrostatic force, heat deformation, piezoelectric materials, shape memory, and so on have been proposed and developed. Among the new actuators, impact drive mechanism and surface acoustic wave motor are introduced as examples of piezoactuators. And as examples of actuators and manipulations using electrostatic force, powerful electrostatic motor, thin film electrostatic motor, electrostatic transportation devices of particles and droplets, and electrostatic suspension are described.