A small-gap electrostatic micro-actuator for large deflections

Conrad, Holger; Schenk, Harald; Kaiser, Bert; Langa, S.; Gaudet, Matthieu; Schimmanz, Klaus; Stolz, Michael; Lenz, Miriam

doi:10.1038/ncomms10078

Cited by 93 publications

(57 citation statements)

References 20 publications

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“…They include piezoelectric 9,10 , electrostatic 11,12 , thermal [13][14][15] , electrokinetic 16,17 and many other actuation principles. Actuators using electrostatic forces are fast but they develop rather weak forces.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Electrochemical membrane microactuator with a millisecond response time

Uvarov

Lokhanin

Постников

et al. 2018

Sensors and Actuators B: Chemical

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Lack of fast and strong actuators to drive microsystems is well recognized. Electrochemical actuators are considered attractive for many applications but they have long response time (minutes) due to slow gas termination. Here an electrochemical actuator is presented for which the response time can be as short as 1ms. The alternating polarity water electrolysis is used to drive the device. In this process only nanobubbles are formed. The gas in nanobubbles can be terminated fast due to surface assisted reaction between hydrogen and oxygen that happens at room temperature. The working chamber of the actuator contains concentric titanium electrodes; it has a diameter of 500 µm and a height of 8 µm. The chamber is sealed by a polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) membrane of 30µm thick. The device is characterized by an interferometer and a fast camera. Cyclic operation at frequency up to 667 Hz with a stroke of about 30% of the chamber volume is demonstrated. The cycles repeat themselves with high precision providing the volume strokes in picoliter range. Controlled explosions in the chamber can push the membrane up to 90 µm.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Electrochemical membrane microactuator with a millisecond response time

Uvarov

Lokhanin

Постников

et al. 2018

Sensors and Actuators B: Chemical

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“…This difficulty could be solved by the integration of several microactuators inside the chip . These actuators could tune the applied pressure for the individual reservoirs to generate monodisperse droplets from each reservoir.…”

Section: Miniaturized Synthesis and Molecule Librariesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Miniaturized and Automated Synthesis of Biomolecules—Overview and Perspectives

et al. 2019

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Chemical synthesis is performed by reacting different chemical building blocks with defined stoichiometry, while meeting additional conditions, such as temperature and reaction time. Such a procedure is especially suited for automation and miniaturization. Life sciences lead the way to synthesizing millions of different oligonucleotides in extremely miniaturized reaction sites, e.g., pinpointing active genes in whole genomes, while chemistry advances different types of automation. Recent progress in matrix‐assisted laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometry (MALDI‐MS) imaging could match miniaturized chemical synthesis with a powerful analytical tool to validate the outcome of many different synthesis pathways beyond applications in the life sciences. Thereby, due to the radical miniaturization of chemical synthesis, thousands of molecules can be synthesized. This in turn should allow ambitious research, e.g., finding novel synthesis routes or directly screening for photocatalysts. Herein, different technologies are discussed that might be involved in this endeavor. A special emphasis is given to the obstacles that need to be tackled when depositing tiny amounts of materials to many different extremely miniaturized reaction sites.

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“…Electrostatic actuation is an ideal candidate for lightweight and small mechanisms. It has long been utilized for actuation in micro‐ and nanoelectromechanical systems (MEMS/NEMS) . An electrostatic force‐controlled microrobot was made by Donald et al Other engineers have incorporated electrostatic force for centimeter‐scale robots and decimeter‐scale wall climbers, and electrostatic forces have been used to actuate soft robotics such as the muscle‐like electrostatic actuator for gripping objects and untethered inchworm‐like robots…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Tunable, Flexible, and Resilient Robots Driven by an Electrostatic Actuator

Jin

Zhang

Xü

et al. 2020

Advanced Intelligent Systems

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Robustness, deformability, maneuverability, and ease of fabrication are among the most desirable features of soft robots that can adapt to various working environments and complex terrains. Herein, polymeric thin‐film‐based flexible robots are designed, prototyped, and examined that use mechanical instability and electrostatic force actuation for locomotion. An electrostatic actuator is first developed using a buckled beam that can deform by up to 68% of its height under an applied voltage. A centimeter‐scale robotic bug is then designed that shows superb flexibility, adaptability, and maneuverability by incorporating origami structural elements. For instance, the robotic bug can be completely smashed and still recover its mobility, walk on various terrains, slopes (up to 30°) and narrow spaces, overcome hurdles, make turns, and even move backward with a crawling (linear) and turning (rotation) speed up to 40 mm s−1 and ≈45° s−1, respectively. Such remarkable characteristics are controlled by a set of parameters such as the amplitude and frequency of the input voltage and/or the origami geometries. The facile and tunable design and the actuation principle can potentially enable ample opportunities for the development of the next‐generation soft robotics.

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A small-gap electrostatic micro-actuator for large deflections

Cited by 93 publications

References 20 publications

Electrochemical membrane microactuator with a millisecond response time

Electrochemical membrane microactuator with a millisecond response time

Miniaturized and Automated Synthesis of Biomolecules—Overview and Perspectives

Tunable, Flexible, and Resilient Robots Driven by an Electrostatic Actuator

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