This paper investigates the effect of driving voltage on the attachment force of an electroadhesion actuator, as the existing literature on the saturation of the adhesive force at a higher electric field is incomplete. A new type of electroadhesion actuator using normally available materials, such as aluminum foil, PVC tape and a silicone rubber sheet used for keyboard protection, has been deve...

Electrostatic actuation is a promising approach to compensate for misalignment of bonded, multi-layered microsystem devices. The present work discusses the performance of electrostatic actuators used for in-plane misalignment compensation in an atom chip comprising an optical cavity. Experimental investigation revealed that the central frame suspending the mirrors can be moved between 3-5 m in ...

This article presents a simplified model for studying the main parameters for magnetically plucking piezoelectric beams in energy harvesting devices. The advantage of magnetic plucking is that there is no impact on the brittle piezo material. However, achieving a good release of the piezo beam is more difficult than with fingers or plectra. The influence of different magnet arrangements, the ga...

High-extinction on-off modulators are essential for channel selection in integrated-optical sensor arrays. We report a standard SiON-technology-based electrostatically driven integrated mechano-optical waveguide on-off intensity modulator. On-off modulation is achieved by movement of an absorbing element into and out of the evanescent field of the guided mode. An extinction ratio of >37 dB at a...

Growing need for a variety of micro electro-mechanical systems necessitates advances in manufacturing technologies for high volume production at low cost. In this study, a mechanical micro pump actuator will be modelled using MEMS module of COMSOL simulation tool. The micro pump actuator will be based on bimetallic actuation which in-turn is based on the difference in the thermal expansion coef...

This paper concerns a new design of RF MEMS switch combined with an innovative process which enable low actuation voltage (<5V) and avoid stiction. First, the structure described with principal design issues, the corresponding antistiction system is presented and FEM simulations are done. Then, a short description of the process flow based on two non polymer sacrificial layers. Finally, RF meas...

Microand nano-mechanical systems may take advantage from using materials having multiple functional characteristics. VO2 is a compound characterised by a solid state phase transition (SSPT) just above room temperature, consisting in a concurrent metal-insulator transition and a change of lattice symmetry and parameters. Here, the combination of non-linear electrical response and structural chan...

Temperature acceleration of dielectriccharging effects in state-of-the-art RF MEMS capacitive switches was characterized and modeled. From the measured charging and discharging transient currents across the switching dielectric, densities and time constants of traps in the dielectric were extracted under different temperatures. It was found that, while charging and discharging time constants ar...

We experimentally investigate the primary superharmonic of order two and subharmonic of order one-half resonances of an electrostatic MEMS actuator under direct excitation. We identify the parameters of a one degree of freedom (1-DOF) generalized Duffing oscillator model representing it. The experiments were conducted in soft vacuum to reduce squeeze-film damping, and the actuator response was ...

An adaptive liquid lens actuated by liquid crystal (LC) pistons is demonstrated. It adopts fluid pressure introduced by the reciprocating movement of LC droplets to regulate the liquid-air interface which, in turn, changes the optical power of the resultant liquid lens. The competitive features are compact size, simple fabrication, good optical performance, reasonably fast response time and low...