PARALLEL FLAT PLATE TYPE MICRO ELECTROSTATIC ACTUATOR, MICRO OPTICAL PATH SWITCH, MICRO MECHANICAL SWITCH, AND THEIR DRIVING METHOD

摘要

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a parallel flat plate type electrostatic actuator which can drive a movable electrode with small power consumption and can quickly makes the electrode take an attitude in parallel to a substrate in addition to a tilt attitude as a parallel flat plate type micro actuator which controls the attitude of the movable electrode by electrostatic driving.;SOLUTION: A fixed electrode 4 is divided into ≥3 parts to make it possible to make the area of the fixed electrode 4 different according to whether or not it is driven when the movable electrode 3 is in motion and has its attitude held, when the movable electrode 3 is changed from a tilt state to another tilt state, the movable electrode 3 and substrate 2 are placed in an entire-surface abutting state wherein they are brought into parallel contact with each other during the state change to improve the operation efficiency, thereby reducing the power consumption.;COPYRIGHT: (C)2002,JPO