Experimental verification of an out-of-plane repulsive-force electrostatic actuator using a macroscopic mechanism

A macroscopic mechanism is developed to verify a repulsive-force electrostatic actuator, which consists of an array of fixed finger electrodes and an array of moving finger electrodes. The actuator is able to generate an asymmetric electric field surrounding the top and bottom surfaces of each moving finger electrode to push the moving finger up and away from the fixed fingers. The macroscopic mechanism consists of a macro repulsive force actuator, a high voltage power supply, a z-stage, a high precision balance and a LCR meter. The force and capacitance characteristic curves of the actuator are obtained using the macro mechanism. The 3-stage force (repulsive, zero and attractive forces) of the actuator is verified, as well as the effects of the moving finger width on the actuator’s performance. Experimental tests show that the macro repulsive-force actuator can generate a repulsive force of 3,000 μN with a maximum gap of 9.5 mm for generating a repulsive force.