Title :
Design of a monolithic dual-axis electrostatic actuation MEMS microgripper with capacitive position/force sensors
Author :
Yukun Jia ; Qingsong Xu
Author_Institution :
Dept. of Electromech. Eng., Univ. of Macau, Macao, China
Abstract :
This paper presents the design of a new monolithic two-axis electrostatically actuated MEMS microgripper with integrated capacitive position and force sensors working at the micro-scale level. Each of the two jaws of the microgripper possesses two degree-of-freedom (DOF) and is capable of positioning in both x- and y-axes. Moreover, different from existing works where one gripper arm is actuated and other one is sensed, both arms of the proposed microgripper are actuated and sensed independently. A sensing scheme is then constructed to provide the position and force signals in the noncontact phase and contact phase, respectively. By applying a 120-V driving voltage, the jaw can provide 70 μm X direction and 18 μm Y direction displacements with the force of 190 μN. By this design, the real-time position and grasping force information can be obtained in the dual sensing mode. The performance of the designed microgripper is verified by both analytical modeling and finite-element analysis.
Keywords :
capacitive sensors; electrostatic actuators; finite element analysis; force sensors; grippers; micromanipulators; MEMS microgripper; analytical model; capacitive position sensor; dual axis electrostatic actuation; dual sensing mode; finite element analysis; force sensor; gripper arm; monolithic electrostatic actuation; voltage 120 V; Actuators; Analytical models; Capacitive sensors; Force; Force sensors; Grippers;
Conference_Titel :
Nanotechnology (IEEE-NANO), 2013 13th IEEE Conference on
Conference_Location :
Beijing
Print_ISBN :
978-1-4799-0675-8
DOI :
10.1109/NANO.2013.6720850