High-speed electrostatic micro-hydraulics for sensing and actuation

In this paper, we report a novel architecture for significant performance enhancement of previously introduced electrostatic micro-hydraulic structures. We develop a 2-D multi-physics model for analysis of our first generation electrostatic micro-hydraulic system (straight-wall architecture) used for sensing and actuation. Using this model, we design and fabricate a new sloped-wall device with a time constant 400× less than that of earlier designs, while maintaining other specification. The optimized electrostatic micro-hydraulic systems are successfully fabricated and tested. Micro-hydraulic structures of various geometries exhibit a measured bandwidth of 50 to 70 Hz, which corresponds to a sensor response time of about 18 ms.