Abstract

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 low voltage control for the MEMS structure. Simulations of a spring supported MEMS in a conventional electrostatic actuator offering ~4.5 µm displacement with 20 V on the pull-down electrode, were compared to the tri-electrode actuator. This study showed that the intermediate electrode can act to provide similar controlled displacement with only 1/3 and 1/4 the voltage for the cases with the pull-down electrode held fixed at 20 V and 40 V respectively. A fabricated prototype experimentally showed that the intermediate electrode can provide similar displacement control with only 1/6 the normal control voltage of an electrostatic actuator.

Highlights

  • Electrostatic actuators are widely used for MEMS devices and offer a main benefit of low steady state power consumption

  • We can see that by using the intermediate electrode as the control electrode, a similar displacement can be achieved with significantly reduced control voltage

  • = 20 V, a Vi = 7.1 V gives a maximum displacement of 4.62 μm, while the displacement at Vi = 0 V is

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Summary

Introduction

Electrostatic actuators are widely used for MEMS devices and offer a main benefit of low steady state power consumption. When larger stroke actuation is required, electrostatic actuators require increasingly higher control voltages, due to the increasing spacing from the pull-down electrode. Research to overcome this issue have been carried out by many groups. A novel tri-electrode topology for the electrostatic actuator was introduced in [5] that can greatly reduce the controlling voltage. A perforated intermediate electrode (biased to Vi) is placed between the MEMS and the underlying pull-down electrode (biased to Vp). The intermediate electrode operates as the variable voltage to provide controllable displacement, while the pull-down electrode remains at a fixed voltage.

Tri-Electrode Configuration Modelling
Results and Discussion
Fabrication of a Prototype and Experimental Demonstration
Conclusions
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