Operational characteristics of microfabricated electric motors

Author

Tavrow, L.S. ; Bart, S.F. ; Lang, J.H.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electr. Eng. & Comput. Sci., MIT, Cambridge, MA, USA

fYear

1991

Firstpage

877

Lastpage

881

Abstract

The authors report on the operational characteristics of LOGOS-based microfabricated radial-gap electric motors through lifetime tests, transient measurements, modeling, and parameter extraction. It is found that the reduction of static friction (stiction) in the bearings by the incorporation of a silicon nitride film permits these micromotors to spin in normal air ambients. Frictional drag from the bearing, which results from the electric-based side-pull of the rotor, is found to be the dominant rotor retarding force and to lead to motor wearout after approximately 10000 rotor revolutions. The frictional coefficient of the nitride on the polysilicon micromotor bearing is determined to be 0.36+or-004.<>

Keywords

electric motors; integrated circuit technology; machine bearings; micromechanical devices; semiconductor technology; small electric machines; IC technology; LOGOS; LPCVD; Si/sub 3/N/sub 4/-Si; bearings; etching; frictional drag; lifetime tests; masks; microfabricated electric motors; modeling; net torque maximisation; operational characteristics; parameter extraction; polysilicon; radial-gap electric motors; static friction; transient measurements; viscous drag; Drag; Electric motors; Electric variables measurement; Friction; Lifetime estimation; Micromotors; Parameter extraction; Rotors; Semiconductor films; Silicon;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Solid-State Sensors and Actuators, 1991. Digest of Technical Papers, TRANSDUCERS '91., 1991 International Conference on

Conference_Location

San Francisco, CA, USA

Print_ISBN

0-87942-585-7

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/SENSOR.1991.149026

Filename

149026