Selective drive of electrostatic actuators using remote inductive powering

Abstract

A remote inductive powering system for driving electrostatic actuators is proposed. The actuators can be controlled selectively by matching transmitter's frequency to the resonance frequency of the receiver LC-circuits. A 8.5 mm/spl times/7.2 mm square and 20 turns planar coil are used as a receiver coil. The maximum output voltage of the receiver was measured about 45 V when a load resistance is more than 100 k/spl Omega/. A conventional electrostatic comb actuator was used for a prototype of the remote powering system. The coil and the actuator were fabricated on the same surface of a commercially available silicon on insulator (SOI) wafer. The displacement of the actuators were selectively controlled by changing the transmitter's frequency.