The lateral instability problem in electrostatic comb drive actuators: modeling and feedback control

Borovic, B.; Lewis, Frank L.; Liu, A Q; Kolesar, Edward S.; Popa, Dan O.

doi:10.1088/0960-1317/16/7/017

Cited by 42 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 15 publications

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“…The most common type on the microscale is the latter, in the form of a comb drive variable capacitor on a folded suspension. For this type of transducer the parasitic damping force can be approximated as [31]:…”

Section: -Electrostatic Dampingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Performance limits of the three MEMS inertial energy generator transduction types

Mitcheson

Reilly

Toh

et al. 2007

J. Micromech. Microeng.

109

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In this paper, the trends from the last 10 years of inertial micro-generator literature are investigated and it is shown that, although current generator designs are still operating well below their maximum power, there has been significant improvement with time. Whilst no clear conclusions could be drawn from reported fabricated devices with respect to preferred transducer technology, this paper presents operating charts for inertial micro-generators which identify optimal operating modes for different frequencies and normalized generator sizes, and allows comparison of the different transduction mechanisms as these parameters vary. It is shown that piezoelectric generators have a wider operating range at low frequency than electromagnetic generators, but as generator dimensions increase, the frequency to which piezoelectric transducers outperform electromagnetic transducers decreases. -INTRODUCTIONMotion and vibration are attractive sources for microengineered energy scavenging generators [1,2]. The most universal motion scavengers are of the inertial type, i.e. having a proof mass suspended within a frame, and energy extracted by a transducer that damps the motion of the proof mass within the frame. These devices have the advantage that they can function simply by being attached to a source of motion at a single point, rather than relying on the relative motion of different parts of the "host" structure. Thus they are also well suited to miniaturisation.The basic operating principle of inertial micro-generators is illustrated in Fig. 1. The fundamental parameters limiting the generator output are its proof mass m and maximum internal displacement Z l , and the source motion amplitude Y 0 and frequency ω [3]. From these we can derive the maximum power from basic principles. If we assume harmonic source motion, the maximum acceleration a max is ω 2 Y 0 . The maximum damping force by which energy can be extracted is equal to the inertial force on the proof mass, ma max (if greater, the mass will not move relative to the frame). If energy is extracted in both directions, and the internal motion amplitude Z o = Z l , (giving the maximum travel range of 2Z l ) we derive a total energy per cycle of 4Z l ma max = 4Z l m ω 2 Y 0 . To convert this to power we simply divide by the excitation period 2π/ω, giving:(1)We can then define a normalised power P n = P/P max as a measure of how close the performance of a specific device comes to the optimum level. We have calculated P n for measurements on inertial energy scavengers reported in the literature [1, and the resulting values are plotted in Fig. 2 as a function of year of publication. An upwards trend can clearly be seen, although the best values are still below 20% of the optimum. Although P n should not drop with volume, since it is normalised to device size, the same data plotted against device volume (Fig. 3) show that typically the best P n values have been achieved for larger devices. This is likely an indication of the technological difficulties encoun...

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Section: -Electrostatic Dampingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Performance limits of the three MEMS inertial energy generator transduction types

Mitcheson

Reilly

Toh

et al. 2007

J. Micromech. Microeng.

109

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“…Therefore it is not possible to stabilize an equilibrium (x, 0) with x >x ⋆ using smooth feedback (Sontag, 1998). Lateral position feedback to control side pull-in has been demonstrated, but this required the addition of lateral sensors and actuators (Borovic, Lewis, Liu, Kolesar, & Popa, 2006).…”

Section: The Side Pull-in Bifurcationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Vibrational control without averaging

Berg

Wickramasinghe

2015

Automatica

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“…Assuming that the device is fabricated in deep reaction ion etching (DRIE) using plasma dry etching, the aspect ration of actuation's microstructures is not infinite but has a finite value [23,24]. As such, it modifies the electrostatic force which is not constant all along the sidewall of the two electrodes, as shown in Fig.…”

Section: Mems Componentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Multi-domain simulation using VHDL-AMS for distributed MEMS in functional environment: Case of a 2D air-jet micromanipulator

Chapuis

Zhou

Fujita

et al. 2008

Sensors and Actuators A: Physical

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The lateral instability problem in electrostatic comb drive actuators: modeling and feedback control

Cited by 42 publications

References 15 publications

Performance limits of the three MEMS inertial energy generator transduction types

Performance limits of the three MEMS inertial energy generator transduction types

Vibrational control without averaging

Multi-domain simulation using VHDL-AMS for distributed MEMS in functional environment: Case of a 2D air-jet micromanipulator

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