A micromachined impact microactuator driven by electrostatic force

摘要

This paper presents a novel micromachined actuator which is developed to produce precise and unlimited displacement. The actuator is driven by impact force between a silicon micro-mass and a stopper. The suspended silicon micro-mass is encapsulated between two glass plates and driven by electrostatic force. When the mass hits the stopper which is fixed on glass plates, impact force is generated to drive the whole actuator in a nano size step (/spl sim/10 nm). The overall dimension of the device is 3 mm /spl times/3 mm. The driving voltage is 100 V and average speed is 2.7 /spl mu/m/s. The total thickness is 600 /spl mu/m.