Modelling and characterization of circular microplate electrostatic actuators for micropump applications

In the last decades, an increasing interest is being directed towards micropumps, the main component of active microfluidic systems. A current research aim is to pursue compact dimensions and low power consumption; a viable alternative is to exploit MEMS manufacturing techniques. This work presents the modelling and the characterization of microplate electrostatic actuators for micropump applications. A one degree-of-freedom model is proposed to describe deformable plate electro-mechanics. The well-established ThELMA technique (STMicroelectronics) is adopted to manufacture the actuator prototypes. The effective plate flexural stiffness is extracted from pull-in tests on a series of plate actuators. The structural model is calibrated accordingly and successfully used to describe the electromechanical response of actuators where an annular electrode is introduced in order to obtain a higher actuator stroke.