Electrostatic chuck having compliant multi-beam structures with rotatable bipolar pad-shaped electrodes

Abstract

The demand for the manipulation of flexible film-like objects and those with non-planar surfaces, which cannot be handled using current technologies, has increased considerably. A bipolar electrostatic chuck (ESC) is a device that clamps target objects using a uniform electrostatic force. Traditional ESCs cannot satisfy these demands because of their planar surfaces. Bipolar ESCs with a compliant multi-beam assembly have been proposed to manipulate such objects while leveraging the uniform force distribution of ESCs. Although the proposed compliant ESCs have the potential for such manipulations, increasing the attractive force remains a critical technical issue. This study aims to develop a compliant ESC with pad-shaped bipolar electrodes connected to beam tips with rotational degrees of freedom (RDOFs). Four ESC models with pad-shaped electrodes with different RDOFs between zero and three and one without a pad-shaped electrode are fabricated via 3D printing. The experimental comparison of the five models indicates that an increase in the RDOFs significantly improves the attractive force of each electrode. The high potential of compliant ESCs with three RDOFs at the beam tips is illustrated using three different demonstrations: picking and placing dielectric films, a rigid object with a plane surface, and a rigid object with a curved surface. The results provide insights into the development of industrial electrostatic grippers.