| Author(s): |
Mohammad Olfatnia; Siddharth Sood; Jason J. Gorman; Shorya Awtar; |
| Title: |
Large Stroke Electrostatic Comb-Drive Actuators Based on a Novel Flexure Mechanism |
| Published: |
June 20, 2012 |
| Abstract: |
This paper reports in-plane electrostatic comb-drive actuators with stroke as large as 245 µm, achieved by employing a novel Clamped Paired Double Parallelogram (C-DP-DP) flexure mechanism. For a given flexure beam length (L1), comb gap (G), and actuation voltage (V), this is currently the largest comb-drive actuator stroke reported in the literature. The C-DP-DP flexure mechanism design offers high bearing direction stiffness (Kx) while maintaining low motion direction stiffness (Ky), over a large range of motion direction displacement. The resulting high (Kx /Ky) ratio mitigates the on-set of sideways snap-in instability, thereby offering significantly greater actuation stroke compared to existing designs. |
| Proceedings: |
Proceedings of the Hilton Head 2012: Solid-state Sensors, Actuators and Microsystems Workshop |
| Pages: |
pp. 409 - 412 |
| Location: |
Hilton Head, SC |
| Dates: |
June 3-7, 2012 |
| Keywords: |
Microelectromechanical systems; MEMS; electrostatic actuator; flexure mechanism; large stroke actuator |
| Research Areas: |
Nanomechanics, Microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), Nanotechnology |
| PDF version: |
 Click here to retrieve PDF version of paper (908KB) |
