Micromotor technology: electric drive designer's perspective

Some insight as to the application of modern electric drive expertise to micro-scale electric machines is given. The discussion is supported by a summary of current micromotor technology and some calculations involving fundamental scaling issues. The main conclusions are: (1) that despite recent advances in magnetic micromachines, electrostatic machines are still the most viable; and (2) that considerable insight from drives experts can be offered in either case.