Electrostatic force generation circuit for single-side electrostatic suspension

For the sake of observing the balance state of the spherical rotor, a newly-designed single-side electrostatic suspension system is developed. An electrostatic force generation circuit including an amplitude modulator, a power amplifier, a pair of peak detectors, and a voltage feedback channel is proposed. Furthermore, the output transformer using a nanocrystalline soft magnetic alloy is designed to achieve fast dynamic response, low power consumption, and excellent thermal stability. The experimental results demonstrate the superiority of the electrostatic force generation circuit over classical amplifiers in terms of dynamic response, power consumption, and long-time stability using a carrier frequency of 4.2 kHz and the closed-loop control scheme.