High-Performance Surface-Micromachined Inchworm Actuator

Boer, Maarten P. de; Luck, David L.; Ashurst, W. Robert; Maboudian, Roya; Corwin, Alex D.; Walraven, Jeremy A.; Redmond, James M.

doi:10.1109/jmems.2003.823236

Cited by 137 publications

(114 citation statements)

References 34 publications

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“…The most recent example of a MEMS tribometer in the literature is the ''Nanotractor'', developed by De Boer et al [22][23][24][25][26][27]. The nanotractor is a micromachined ''inchworm actuator'' that can walk over the surface in small steps against a restoring spring.…”

Section: Mems Tribometersmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Leiden MEMS Tribometer: Real Time Dynamic Friction Loop Measurements With an On-Chip Tribometer

Spengen

Frenken

2007

Tribol Lett

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On-chip MEMS tribometer devices until now have been much less sophisticated for dynamically sensing frictional forces than their FFM (friction force microscope) counterparts. In this article, we present a MEMS-based tribometer that can be used to measure dynamically, onchip and in-situ, the frictional properties of MEMS-scale contact geometries. The device provides the first FFM-like friction loops with contacting MEMS sidewall surfaces. Depending on the normal load two regimes of operation are identified. At low and intermediate loads, the frictional behaviour reflects wear-less relative motion of the silicon oxide surfaces of the MEMS device and we observe repeatable, irregular stick-slip behaviour, related to the surface roughness. At very high loads, wear causes changes in the topography of the contacting surfaces.

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Section: Mems Tribometersmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Leiden MEMS Tribometer: Real Time Dynamic Friction Loop Measurements With an On-Chip Tribometer

Spengen

Frenken

2007

Tribol Lett

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“…As a result, electrostatic microactuators with large displacement ranges generally suffer from low output forces. Electrostatic micromotors based on stepping motion [5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13] are a practical solution for generating large output forces and large displacements simultaneously. These motors use a "large force-short stroke" microactuator to produce small, powerful steps.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…These motors use a "large force-short stroke" microactuator to produce small, powerful steps. A clamping mechanism, either based on frictional force [5][6][7][8][10][11][12][13] or obtained with gear teeth [9], is employed to create large displacements via incremental steps. In these motors, the propulsion and the clamping are dissociated to allow for individual optimization of these two mechanisms.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Shuffle motors [8,10], contraction beams motors [12] or stepper motors with an in-plane angular inflexion conversion [13] are a few examples of such mechanisms. Shuffle motors employ electrostatic force to inflect an elastic plate and generate small, powerful steps.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The performance and reliability of the motor were limited by charge accumulation in the silicon nitride layer employed as insulation between the electrically grounded shuttle and the driving electrodes. The negative effect of charge accumulation could be ameliorated in an improved shuffle motor design [10]. In the design, charge accumulation was avoided by allowing mechanical contacts only between electrically grounded parts.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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High-Performance Shuffle Motor Fabricated by Vertical Trench Isolation Technology

et al. 2010

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Shuffle motors are electrostatic stepper micromotors that employ a built-in mechanical leverage to produce large output forces as well as high resolution displacements. These motors can generally move only over predefined paths that served as driving electrodes. Here, we present the design, modeling and experimental characterization of a novel shuffle motor that moves over an unpatterned, electrically grounded surface. By combining the novel design with an innovative micromachining method based on vertical trench isolation, we have greatly simplified the fabrication of the shuffle motors and significantly improved their overall performance characteristics and reliability. Depending on the propulsion voltage, our motor with external dimensions of 290 m × 410 m displays two distinct operational modes with adjustable step sizes varying respectively from 0.6 to 7 nm and from 49 to 62 nm. The prototype was driven up to a cycling frequency of 80 kHz, showing nearly linear dependence of its velocity with frequency and a maximum velocity of 3.6 mm/s. For driving voltages of 55 V, the device had a maximum travel range of 70 m and exhibited an output force of 1.7 mN, resulting in the highest force and power densities reported so far for an electrostatic micromotor. After five days of operation, it had traveled a OPEN ACCESSMicromachines 2010, 1 49 cumulative distance of more than 1.5 km in 34 billion steps without noticeable deterioration in performance.

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On‐Chip Testing of MEMS

Kahn

2007

Reliability of MEMS

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High-Performance Surface-Micromachined Inchworm Actuator

Cited by 137 publications

References 34 publications

The Leiden MEMS Tribometer: Real Time Dynamic Friction Loop Measurements With an On-Chip Tribometer

The Leiden MEMS Tribometer: Real Time Dynamic Friction Loop Measurements With an On-Chip Tribometer

High-Performance Shuffle Motor Fabricated by Vertical Trench Isolation Technology

On‐Chip Testing of MEMS

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