Hybrid electrostatic/magnetic microactuators

Two different principles for actuation of microactuators, the Lorentz force and the Coulomb force, are combined on the same device. Microactuators are fabricated using conventional semiconductor technologies. The actuator patterns are etched out from a 1 /spl mu/m Al thin-film on a Si wafer. A simple model of an electrostatic actuator, for parallel electrodes, is introduced. If this actuator performs work against a spring, the displacement versus voltage executes a hysteresis curve. In the present paper the combination of Lorentz force and Coulomb force produces actuation forces in all 3 spatial directions (x, y, and z), and as an application example an xyz-table was built.