With areal recording density of hard disk drives (HDD) historically growing at an average of 60% per year, it is becoming increasingly more difficult to maintain the precise positioning required of the eversmaller GMR heads to read and write data. It is predicted that 100 Gb/in HDD areal density would be probably delivered by 2003. To reach such high track densities, the lower mechanical distur...

In recent years, single dielectric barrier discharge (SDBD) plasma actuators have gained great interest among all the active flow control devices typically employed in aerospace and turbomachinery applications [1,2]. Compared with the macro SDBDs, the micro single dielectric barrier discharge (MSDBD) actuators showed a higher efficiency in conversion of input electrical power to delivered mecha...

Thermal bimorphs are a popular actuation technology in MEMS (Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems). Their operating principle is based on differential thermal expansion induced by Joule heating. Thermal bimorphs, and other thermal flexture actuators have been used in many applications, from microgrippers, to micro-optical mirrors. In most cases openloop control is used due to difficulties in fabric...

The work carried out in this article essentially relates to the application of a synergetic control piezoelectric positioning mechanism or actuator (PEA). A LuGre model has been followed, capturing most physical phenomena, order be able follow realistic and representative possible. From model, which is then identified by particle swarm optimization (PSO), we apply technique, very efficient meth...

This paper presents a novel design of MEMS based microneedle actuator with force feedback system which can be used for biomedical applications such as cell manipulation, drug delivery and DNA injection. The actuation mechanism of microneedle is driven by two electrostatic comb actuators. Since the manipulated objects are very sensitive, and can be easily damaged, it’s essential to have a force ...