An Electrostatic Self-Excited Resonator with Pre-Tension/Pre-Compression Constraint for Active Rotation Control

Abstract

We report a novel electrostatic self-excited resonator driven by DC voltage that achieves variable velocity-position characteristics via applying the pre-tension/pre-compression constraint. The resonator consists of a simply supported micro-beam, two plate electrodes, and two adjustable constraint bases, and it can be under pre-compression or pre-tension constraint by adjusting the distance L between two constraint bases (when beam length l > L, the resonator is under pre-compression and when l < L, it is under pre-tension). The oscillating velocity of the beam reaches the maximum value in the position around electrodes under the pre-compression constraint and reaches the maximum value in the middle position between two electrodes under the pre-tension condition. By changing the constraint of the microbeam, the position of the maximum velocity output of the oscillating beam can be controlled. The electrostatic self-excited resonator with a simple constraint structure under DC voltage has great potential in the field of propulsion of micro-robots, such as active rotation control of flapping wings.

Untethered Flight of a 270 mg Microrobot Powered by Onboard Energy

“…When the DC voltage is powered on (operating voltage, 2400 V), the metal beam starts oscillating under a steady electric field. [43,59,60] As shown in Figure 2A, the electrostatic force F E overcomes the mechanical force F M and aerodynamic forces F A1 and F A2 to drive the movement of the flapping unit. F A1 and F A2 are the joint forces of lift and drag, respectively.…”

Editorial for the Special Issue “Microsystem for Electronic Devices”

“…This Special Issue includes 12 high-quality papers focused on the development of microsystems. Half of the published papers focus on light-emitting diode (LED) microsystems and related microelectronic systems [4][5][6][7][8][9], three papers discuss the cooling techniques of electronic microsystems [10][11][12], and the final three papers present several mechanical microsystems [13][14][15].…”

“…A novel electrostatic self-excited resonator driven by DC voltage that can achieve variable velocity-position characteristics through pre-tension/pre-compression constraints was developed by Qi el al. [14]. The resonator can switch between pre-compression and pre-tension by adjusting the distance between two constraint bases, and thus controlling the position of the maximum velocity output of the oscillating beam.…”