A normally latched, large-stroke, inchworm microactuator

Risaku Toda, Eui Hyeok Yang

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

26 Scopus citations

Abstract

This paper presents the successful demonstration of a large-stroke, high-precision inchworm microactuator. The actuator is capable of zero-power latching, or forcibly maintaining its position by using pre-stressed spring load. The actuator is driven by a combination of a PZT-stack actuator unit for slider thrust and electrostatic comb-drive units for slider grip. Incremental step size is precisely adjustable to the tens of nanometers level by controlling the PZT-stack actuator voltage. The observed minimum step size was 59 nm/cycle. Large stroke is obtained by repeating the operation sequence numerous times. A large-stroke actuation exceeding 600 νm has been demonstrated. There is no conceivable limit to the stroke except for the length of the slider and external load.

Original languageEnglish
Article number039
Pages (from-to)1715-1720
Number of pages6
JournalJournal of Micromechanics and Microengineering
Volume17
Issue number8
DOIs
StatePublished - 1 Aug 2007

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