Artificial muscles are an emerging class of actuators designed to mimic the compliant, efficient, and versatile behavior of biological muscles for fields including the following: soft robotics, prosthetics, wearable enhancements, haptic interfaces, a...
The mechanism of the inchworm motor, which overcomes the intrinsic displacement and force limitations of MEMS electrostatic actuators, has undergone constant development in the past few decades. In this work, the electrostatic actuation unit cell (AU...
In this paper, we report a novel laterally actuated Radio Frequency (RF) Microelectromechanical Systems (MEMS) switch, which is based on a combination of electrothermal actuation and electrostatic latching hold. The switch takes the advantages of bot...
The concept, design, technological fabrication and experimental characterization of a function unit consisting of two mechanically coupled MEMS micromirrors, denoted in this paper as Tandem Micromirrors (TMM) unit, are presented. Conventional single...
In this article, the pull-in instability and dynamic characteristics of electrostatically actuated suspended microchannel resonators are studied. A theoretical model is presented to describe the pull-in effect of suspended microchannel resonators by...
For space-based gravitational-wave detection, a released test mass in an inertial sensor may retain appreciable residual angular motion, while electrostatic actuation authority is finite. This work investigates single-axis test-mass capture about the...
Having benefited from technological developments, such as surface micromachining, high-aspect-ratio silicon micromachining and ongoing miniaturization in complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor (CMOS) technology, some electrostatic actuat...
In this study, we propose a new ‘V’-shaped actuator with two panels and experimentally and theoretically investigate its actuation to find the most efficient structure. The V-shaped actuator operates like a seesaw. Specifically, when a hi...
Presented in this paper is a bi-directional out-of-plane actuator which combines the merits of the electrostatic repulsive principle and the electrostatic attractive principle. By taking advantage of the electrostatic repulsive mode, the common “pull...
We present a new tri-electrode topology for reducing the control voltage for electrostatic actuators. Conventional parallel plate actuators are dual-electrode systems, formed by the MEMS structure and the drive electrode. By placing a perforated inte...
Employing a tri-electrode topology for electrostatic actuators can significantly reduce needed control voltages. The tri-electrode topology employs a perforated intermediate electrode between the MEMS structure and pull-down electrode, and provides a...
Continuous work on a new generation of actuators, referred to as artificial muscles, resulted in the initiation of work on electrostatic zipping actuators, the concept of which is derived from micro electro-mechanical devices. Despite partial knowled...
A simple actuator to create non-reciprocal leg motion is imperative in realizing a multi-legged micro-locomotion mechanism. This work focuses on an arch-shaped electrostatic actuator as a candidate actuator, and it proposes the operation protocol to...
Nowadays, the concept of programmable matter paves the way for promising applications such as reshaping an object to test different configurations, modeling or rapid prototyping. Based on elementary modules, such matter can be arranged and disassembl...
This work analyzes a built-in slider detection method for a charge-induction type electrostatic film actuator with a high surface-resistance slider. In the detection method, one stator electrode is detached from the parallel driving electrodes and is...
The possibility of constructing new high-performance electrostatic fast actuators based on energy transformation in nanometer gaps is considered. The construction and the properties of the operation of such devices as well as their typical parameters...
In this paper, we present different microelectromechanical systems based on electrostatic actuators, and demonstrate their capacity to achieve large and stepwise displacements using a cooperative function of the actuators themselves. To explore this,...
In this paper, an analytical technique based on the global residue harmonic balance method (GRHBM) is applied in order to obtain higher-order approximate analytical solutions of an electrostatically actuated micro-beam. To illustrate the applicabilit...
This research focused on improving the control and sensing of electrostatically actuated, large deflection bimorph beams for optical beam steering. Current iterations of designs utilize a ‘zipper’ beam and have demonstrated large deflection angles. H...
Dual-slider positioning in a miniaturized system is crucial in many industrial applications. This paper presents a miniaturized dual-slider linear actuator by employing one piezoelectric element (PZT) and integrating the methods of electrostatic adhe...
We report on theoretical and experimental investigation of parametric amplification of acoustically excited vibrations in micromachined single-crystal silicon cantilevers electrostatically actuated by fringing fields. The device dynamics are analyzed...
Vibrotactile feedback is a key feature of many modern touch displays, which greatly enhances user experiences when interacting with an onscreen interface. Despite its popularity in small touch screen devices, this haptic feature is absent in most lar...
An electrostatic membrane actuator with an elastomer membrane as movable part and silver nanowires (AgNWs) as flexible electrode material is built and characterized. A layered and modular actuator design facilitates simple and fast modification of ac...
The capacitance and rotor angle of a MEMS top-drive electrostatic rotary actuator do not have a linear relationship due to the non-ignorable fringe effect and low aspect ratio of the electrodes. Therefore, the position estimation is not as straightfo...
We present the development study of a reliable and low-power actuator for microfluidics-based active glasses. The adaptive part of the lens implements two liquids of a specific refractive index separated by a thin membrane, the modification of their...
MEMS electrostatic actuators can suffer from a high control voltage and a limited displacement range, which are made more prevalent by the pull-in effect. This study explores a tri-electrode topology to enable a reduction in the control voltage and e...
Microelectromechanical switch has become an essential component in a wide variety of applications, ranging from biomechanics and aerospace engineering to consumer electronics. Electrostatically actuated microbeams and microplates are chief parts of m...
Microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) resonators require fast, accurate, and cost-effective testing for mass production. Among the different test methods, frequency domain analysis is one of the easiest and fastest. This paper presents the measuremen...
The paper presents a novel fully integrated MEMS-based non-resonating operated 2D mechanical scanning system using a 1D push-pull actuator. Details of the design, fabrication and tests performed are presented. The current design utilizes an integrate...
This article presents the electrostatic actuation performance of micromirror arrays for intelligent active daylight control and energy management in green buildings using a capacitive–voltage (C-V) measurement technique. In order to understand...
This paper describes a simulated MEMS field mill that utilizes a vertical movement shutter powered by an electrostatic actuator. The design is based upon a Flexible PCB substrate to enable faster prototyping and lower cost. The simulation results sho...
Employing a tri-electrode electrostatic actuator revealed a significant improvement in reducing the controlling voltage. However, the primary electrode fixed voltage can be a few times higher than the conventional topology. In this work, materials wi...
The gallium-based eutectic liquid metal alloys exhibit unique properties of deformability, excellent electrical conductivity and low vapour pressure. The liquid metal-based circuits’ element or actuator have drawn considerable attention in stre...
Electroactive polymer (EAP) actuators are an example of a novel soft material device that can be used for several applications including artificial muscles and lenses. The field of EAPs can be broken down into a few fields; however, the field that wi...
The microgripper plays a critical role in micromanipulation systems; however, the handling accuracy of traditional driving microgrippers suffers from external vibration due to requiring connecting wires for an external power supply. By contrast, ligh...
We report the preparation of freestanding membranes of cross-linked gold nanoparticles (GNPs) and demonstrate their application as electromechanical sensors for volatile organic compounds (VOCs). First, we show that the fundamental vibrational mode f...
This paper presents both an experimental and a numerical study concerning the mechanical response of a silicon microgripper with bidirectional electrostatic actuation to externally applied excitations. The experimental set-up is composed of a probe s...
We present the design, fabrication, and experimental characterization of microsystems achieving large and stepwise discrete displacements. The systems consist of electrostatic bending plate actuators linked in a chain with increasing electrode gaps t...
Micromachined electric field mills have received much interest for the measurement of DC fields; however, conventional designs with lateral moving shutters could have shutter lifting in the presence of strong fields, which affects their performance....
A class of bipolar electrostatically actuated micro-resonators is presented in this paper. Two parametric equations are proposed for changing the microbeam shape of the upper and lower sections. The mechanical properties of a micro-resonator can be e...
The implementation of electrostatic microactuators is one of the most popular technical solutions in the field of micropositioning due to their versatility and variety of possible operation modes and methods. Nevertheless, such uncertainty in existin...
This paper presents a nonlinear analytical model of MEMS mass sensor, which is composed of two cantilevers of 98 µm and 100 µm length, 20 µm width and 1.3 µm thick. They are connected by a coupling beam and only the shortest cantilever is actuated by...
The undesired square-law characteristics in micro-electrostatic actuators and magnetic solenoids results in a limited stable range, which reduces their application fields and performance. This research investigated the isomorphic dynamics in these ac...
In this paper, a general methodology for the dynamic study of electrostatically actuated droplets is presented. A simplified 1D transient model is developed to investigate the transient response of a droplet to an actuation voltage and to study the e...
This paper presents a new actuation mechanism to drive comb-drive actuators. An asymmetric configuration of the finger overlap was used to generate capacitive coupling for the actuation mechanism. When the driving voltages were applied on the stators...
Millions of electrostatically actuatable micromirror arrays have been arranged in between windowpanes in inert gas environments, enabling active daylighting in buildings for illumination and climatization. MEMS smart windows can reduce energy consump...
Chopsticks are a popular tool used every day by 1.5 billion people to pick up pieces of food of different sizes and shapes. Given that the use of chopsticks requires sophisticated muscle control, they are difficult to use for unskilled people. In thi...
In this study, we introduce Fe3O4-silicone flexible composite actuators fabricated by combining silicone and iron oxide particles. The actuators exploit the flexibility of silicone and the electric conductivity of iron oxide particles. These actuator...
Artificial muscles underlie exciting, novel technologies that have many wide-reaching applications: exoskeleton actuation, walker robots, prosthetics and stealthy underwater propulsion. Actuating these muscles via electrostatic forces promises excell...
This article introduces the current status of the 0.18-micron CMOS MEMS foundry service platform provided by the Taiwan Semiconductor Research Institute (TSRI), extensively covering the CMOS MEMS components that it has supported in development and fa...
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