Voltage and pull-in time in current drive of electrostatic actuators

Author

Pons-Nin, Joan ; Rodríguez, Angel ; Castañer, Luis M.

Author_Institution

E.T.S.E. de Telecomunicacio, Univ. Politecnica de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain

Volume

11

Issue

3

fYear

2002

fDate

6/1/2002 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

196

Lastpage

205

Abstract

The absolute maximum value of the voltage developed across an electrostatic actuator when driven by a current source has been calculated as well as an absolute minimum for the pull-in time. These two results are calculated for a drive using a δ-pulse of current and numerical assessment is given to show that for a nonzero parasitic capacitance, a realistic shape of the current pulse, or a finite value of the damping coefficient do not increase the maximum value of the voltage developed beyond that limit and that the pull-in time is always larger than the analytical minimum. A scaled-up macromodel of an electrostatic actuator has been used to register voltage transients to validate the theoretical predictions

Keywords

capacitance; constant current sources; damping; electrostatic actuators; semiconductor device models; transients; δ-pulse; current drive; current source; damping coefficient; electrostatic actuators; nonzero parasitic capacitance; pull-in time; scaled-up macromodel; voltage absolute maximum value; voltage transients; Capacitors; Electrodes; Electrostatic actuators; Kinetic energy; Micromechanical devices; Parasitic capacitance; Power system reliability; Resonance; Tunable circuits and devices; Voltage;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Microelectromechanical Systems, Journal of

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

1057-7157

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/JMEMS.2002.1007398

Filename

1007398