Abstract
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 (AUC) that is designed to cooperate with many other counterparts in a novel concept of a modular-like cooperative actuator system is examined. First, the cooperative system is briefly discussed. A simplified analytical model of the AUC, which is a 2-Degree-of-Freedom (2-DoF) gap-closing actuator (GCA), is presented, taking into account the major source of dissipation in the system, the squeeze-film damping (SQFD). Then, the results of a series of coupled-field numerical simulation studies by the Finite Element Method (FEM) on parameterized models of the AUC are shown, whereby sensible comparisons with available analytical models from the literature are made. The numerical simulations that focused on the dynamic behavior of the AUC highlighted the substantial influence of the SQFD on the pull-in and pull-out times, and revealed how these performance characteristics are considerably determined by the structure’s height. It was found that the pull-out time is the critical parameter for the dynamic behavior of the AUC, and that a larger damping profile significantly shortens the actuator cycle time as a consequence.
Highlights
This paper presents the results of modeling an actuation unit cell (AUC), both analytically by a lumped-parameter model and numerically with Finite Element Method (FEM), and compares between the two approaches where possible
A concept for a modular-like cooperative actuator system that is inspired by the inchworm motor is presented
The results of the static FEM analyses carried out on the AUC showed excellent correlation with the analytical model for the pull-in voltage found in the literature
Summary
Electrostatic actuation is widely commercially used in applications where only low forces and displacements are needed, such as in MEMS-based gyros using the Coriolis effect [1] and in the Digital Micro Mirror (DMD) device [2]. Electrostatic actuators in MEMS have intrinsic limitations in terms of force and linear displacement capacities. To overcome these limitations, electrostatically driven actuation systems based on the inchworm principle, which typically achieves extended linear displacements through a scheme of repeated latch-drive operations on a common shuttle, have been proposed [5,6,7,8]
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