Cripe, J.
, Schulze, S.
, Schlamminger, S.
, Shaw, G.
and Seifert, F.
(2026),
Electrostatic force method to determine flexure stiffness with integrated fiber-optic displacement interferometer, Measurement Science and Technology, [online], https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=958836 (Accessed September 17, 2026)
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Electrostatic force method to determine flexure stiffness with integrated fiber-optic displacement interferometer
Published
Author(s)
Jonathan Cripe, Sven Schulze, , , Frank Seifert
Abstract
We have developed a miniature flexure-based reference spring to use as a stiffness transfer artefact, made from fused silica. This device integrates an electrostatic actuator made of a sphere-flat capacitor and a fiber optic displacement sen- sor to measure flexure stiffness as defined by Hooke's law. The experimental method can be adapted for measurement traceable to physical constants. To validate our measurements, we performed a separate calibration using a reference mass. The measured stiffness value from these methods is (45 ± 1) N m−1 and (46.79 ± 0.93) N m−1, respectively. With a displacement measurement resolution of 40 pm, this reference spring can be used to calibrate forces as low as 2 nN.Citation
Measurement Science and Technology
Pub Type
Journals
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Keywords
metrology, mass, force, optical power, nanotechnology, NIST-on-a-Chip
Citation
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Created January 7, 2026, Updated September 16, 2026