Design, fabrication and testing of laterally driven electrostatic motors employing walking motion and mechanical leverage

Tas, N.R. and Sonnenberg, T. and Molenaar, R. and Elwenspoek, M. (2003) Design, fabrication and testing of laterally driven electrostatic motors employing walking motion and mechanical leverage. Journal of Micromechanics and Microengineering, 13 (1). N6-N15. ISSN 0960-1317

PDF
Restricted to UT campus only: Request a copy
530Kb

Abstract:	Laterally driven linear electrostatic micromotors have been fabricated by standard surface micromachining. We attempt to employ mechanical leverage with the aim to increase the force from the order of 1 ¿N up to the order of 0.1 mN, in combination with walking motion to increase the stroke to virtually unlimited. Three designs have been made and tested. We conclude that mechanical levers with proper stiffness characteristics to be driven by electrostatic actuators are feasible. Friction as a function of the applied electrostatic clamp force has been measured, showing that there is a significant adhesion in the clamps. Walking motion has been successfully generated in one of the designs, generating a stroke of 15 ¿m and a force of 3 ¿N. Improvement of the clamping is needed to benefit from the implemented levers to increase the generated force.
Item Type:	Article
Copyright:	© Institute of Physics and IOP Publishing Limited 2003
Faculty:	Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science (EEMCS)
Research Group:	Transducers Science and Technology (TST)
Link to this item:	http://purl.utwente.nl/publications/46296
Official URL:	http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/0960-1317/13/1/402
Export this item as:	BibTeX EndNote HTML Citation Reference Manager

Show download statistics for this publication

Repository Staff Only: item control page

Metis ID: 214502