Design, fabrication, and operation of submicron gap comb-drive microactuators

Hirano, T.; Furuhata, T.; Gabriel, K.J.; Fujita, Hiroyuki

doi:10.1109/84.128056

Cited by 156 publications

(91 citation statements)

References 8 publications

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“…The actuator utilized pulling force between two interdigited comb-like fingers; one set was fixed to the substrate and the other set was attached to the moving part. The minimum gap between comb fingers was 100-200 nanometer (6) . The actuator typically generated the force of 10-100 micro-N and the displacement of 1-10 micrometers.…”

Section: Electrostatic Comb-drivementioning

confidence: 99%

Evolution from MEMS-based Linear Drives to Bio-based Nano Drives

Fujita

2006

IEEJ Trans. IA

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The successful extension of semiconductor technology to fabricate mechanical parts of the sizes from 10 to 100 micrometers opened wide ranges of possibilities for micromechanical devices and systems. The fabrication technique is called micromachining. Micromachining processes are based on silicon integrated circuits (IC) technology and used to build three-dimensional structures and movable parts by the combination of lithography, etching, film deposition, and wafer bonding. Microactuators are the key devices allowing MEMS to perform physical functions. Some of them are driven by electric, magnetic, and fluidic forces. Some others utilize actuator materials including piezoelectric (PZT, ZnO, quartz) and magnetostrictive materials (TbFe), shape memory alloy (TiNi) and bio molecular motors.This paper deals with the development of MEMS based microactuators, especially linear drives, following my own research experience. They include an electrostatic actuator, a superconductive levitated actuator, arrayed actuators, and a bio-motor-driven actuator. I started the investigation of MEMS in 1886. The study on microactuators has been one of the major activities in my laboratory. The development of novel micromachining technology has been conducted intensively in order to realize microactuators. The first fully micromachined actuator in my laboratory was an electrostatic comb drive. An example of a comb drive is shown in Fig. 1. The actuator utilized electrostatic pulling force between two interdigited comb-like fingers, one set was fixed to the substrate and the other set was attached to the moving part. The actuator typically generated the force of 10-100 micro-N and the displacement of 1-10 micrometers.The cilialy motion conveyor mimics the motion of cilia in living organisms. We fabricated an array of microactuators which are thermally driven bimorphic cantilevers. When Joule heating in the heater relaxes the thermal stress, the curled cantilever becomes flat. Thus the tip goes up and down. The dimensions of the cantilever are: 500 micrometers in length, 100 micrometers in width Linear bio motors consisting of two proteins, i.e. kinesin and microtubule, were attached to MEMS structures and substrates, respectively. Thus, we could build a transportation device driven by bio motors. When kinesin-coated structures are placed on the microtubule, kinesin generates force and convey those objects (Fig. 2). The energy for bio motors is supplied by ATP molecules in water. On and off control of the motion of micro beads was successfully demonstrated by adding ATP molecules and removing them from the solution. We also succeeded the aligned immobilization of microtubules on the substrate or in the micro channel. It was possible to convey objects in the pre-determined direction with this technology.When micromachining technology and microactuator design were established, the applications were pursued. A needle attached to a microactuator was brought into the close vicinity (less than a few nanometers) from the stationary electrode;...

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Section: Electrostatic Comb-drivementioning

confidence: 99%

Evolution from MEMS-based Linear Drives to Bio-based Nano Drives

Fujita

2006

IEEJ Trans. IA

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“…Cantilever beams are often classified separately as fingers and are extensively used to design electrostatic actuators and sensors. Sometimes fingers are provided with pedestals to reduce the inter-finger gap below the lithography limit for higher sensitivity of the mechanical to electrical transfer function for the electrostatic transducer [30]. Two or more beams are connected by joints which can be modeled in the adjacent beams for simplicity.…”

Section: A Atomic Elementsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A widely used electrostatic actuator is the linear comb drive [32] made up of interdigited fingers which may or may not have pedestals [30] [see Fig. 4(a) and (b)].…”

Section: B Electromechanical Comb Actuatorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

An extraction-based verification methodology for MEMS

Baidya

Gupta

Mukherjee

2002

J. Microelectromech. Syst.

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Abstract-Micromachining techniques are being increasingly used to develop miniaturized sensor and actuator systems. These system designs tend to be captured as layout, requiring extraction of the equivalent microelectromechanical circuit as a necessary step for design verification. This paper presents an extraction methodology to (re-)construct a circuit schematic representation from the layout, enabling the designer to use microelectromechanical circuit simulators to verify the functional behavior of the layout. This methodology uses a canonical representation of the given layout on which feature-based and graph-based recognition algorithms are applied to generate the equivalent extracted schematic. Extraction can be performed to either the atomic level or the functional level representation of the reconstructed circuit. The choice of level in hierarchy is governed by the trade off between simulation time and simulation accuracy of the extracted circuit. The combination of the MEMS layout extraction and lumped-parameter circuit simulation provides MEMS designers with VLSI-like tools enabling faster design cycles, and improved design productivity.[682]

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“…Pablo G. and his team members manage to project two capacitive comb drives with the aim to eliminate the levitation effect often observed in such systems [3]. Besides the areas of researches above, a size-dependent nonlinear model is built by Dai, H. L. and other scientists based on the modified couple stress theory [4]. However, flaws remain in current models.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Numerical Simulation on the Comb Drive Micro-Accelerometer

Zhao¹

2017

MME

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In this study, we research about comb-drive micro-structure, which is a MEMS device used to measure velocities and accelerations. To ensure the accuracy and visualization of the result, we simulate the dynamics of the comb drive using COMSOL Multiphysics, meanwhile introducing the concept of re-meshing. We aim to find the optimal comb-drive-building material, which can provide the device with the most desirable first eigenfrequency. According to the optimization process, silver is the most suitable construction material. Afterwards, the electric responses of both the optimized device and the pre-optimized one are analyzed in frequency domain and stationary study. We conclude that the capacitance change is positively related to frequency in a linear manner, and that the optimized device has a larger increment of both displacement and capacitance per unit of frequency change than the pre-optimized one, showing that the optimization of material realizes our goal of enhancing electrical performance.

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Design, fabrication, and operation of submicron gap comb-drive microactuators

Cited by 156 publications

References 8 publications

Evolution from MEMS-based Linear Drives to Bio-based Nano Drives

Evolution from MEMS-based Linear Drives to Bio-based Nano Drives

An extraction-based verification methodology for MEMS

Numerical Simulation on the Comb Drive Micro-Accelerometer

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