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High-resolution inchworm linear motor based on electrostatic twisting microactuators

Sang-Ho Kim1, Il-Han Hwang1, Kyoung-Woo Jo1, Eui-Sung Yoon2 and Jong-Hyun Lee1

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A new inchworm micromotor using new electrostatic in-plane twisting microactuators has been designed, fabricated and characterized for nano-resolution manipulators. The proposed twisting mechanism was implemented employing a pair of differential electrostatic actuators with a high stiffness in the driving direction for stable positioning. The electromechanically coupled motion of the voltage–displacement relation was analyzed using a finite element method (FEM), confirming that the twisting actuator makes a tiny step movement efficiently. The proposed actuator was fabricated on a silicon-on-insulator (SOI) wafer with the device footprint of 2.2 × 2.8 mm2, and its nano-stepping characteristics were measured by an optical interferometer consisting of an integrated micromirror and optical fiber. The fabricated inchworm motor showed a minimum step displacement of 5.2 ± 3.8 nm (2σ) and 4.1 ± 2.9 nm (2σ) for cyclic motion in the +y- and the −y-directions, respectively, with the gripping voltage of 15 V and differential voltage of 1 V. As a result, the proposed inchworm micromotor could operate with a stroke of 3 µm and a bi-directional step displacement of less than 10 nm. The step displacement is the smallest value of in-plane-type micromotors so far, and its magnitude was controllable up to 120 nm/cycle by changing the differential voltage.


PACS

85.85.+j Micro- and nano-electromechanical systems (MEMS/NEMS) and devices

42.81.-i Fiber optics

02.70.Dh Finite-element and Galerkin methods

Subjects

Computational physics

Electronics and devices

Optics, quantum optics and lasers

Nanoscale science and low-D systems

Dates

Issue 9 (September 2005)

Received 1 March 2005, in final form 26 May 2005

Published 15 July 2005



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