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Pairing Electrostatic Levitation With Triboelectric Transduction For High-Performance Self-Powered Mems Sensors And Actuators, Mark Pallay, Alwathiqbellah I. Ibrahim, Ronald N. Miles, Shahrzad Towfighian
Pairing Electrostatic Levitation With Triboelectric Transduction For High-Performance Self-Powered Mems Sensors And Actuators, Mark Pallay, Alwathiqbellah I. Ibrahim, Ronald N. Miles, Shahrzad Towfighian
Mechanical Engineering Faculty Scholarship
We demonstrate that an electrostatic levitation MEMS switch can be operated by applying mechanical pres- sure to a triboelectric generator. The toggling mechanism of the switch draws no current but requires a high actuating voltage, while the generator can supply a high voltage but only produces microwatts of power. The synergistic combination results in an entirely self-powered sensor and switch; the normally-closed MEMS switch can be toggled open by applying a threshold force to the generator without the need for any outside power or supplementary circuitry. A model of the MEMS switch and electrostatic force is validated with experimental data. …
Merging Parallel-Plate And Levitation Actuators To Enable Linearity And Tunability In Electrostatic Mems, Mark Pallay, Ronald N. Miles, Shahrzad Towfighian
Merging Parallel-Plate And Levitation Actuators To Enable Linearity And Tunability In Electrostatic Mems, Mark Pallay, Ronald N. Miles, Shahrzad Towfighian
Mechanical Engineering Faculty Scholarship
In this study, a linear electrostatic MEMS actuator is introduced. The system consists of a MEMS cantilever beam with combined parallel-plate and electrostatic levitation forces. By using these two forcing methods simultaneously, the static response and natural frequency can be made to vary linearly with the voltage. The static response shows a linear increase of 90 nm/V and is maintained for more than 12μm of the tip displacement. The natural frequency shows a linear increase of 16 Hz/V and is maintained throughout a 2.9 kHz shift in the natural frequency. This wide range of linear displacement and frequency tunability is …
A Tunable Electrostatic Mems Pressure Switch, Mark Pallay, Ronald N. Miles, Shahrzad Towfighian
A Tunable Electrostatic Mems Pressure Switch, Mark Pallay, Ronald N. Miles, Shahrzad Towfighian
Mechanical Engineering Faculty Scholarship
We demonstrate a tunable air pressure switch. The switch detects when the ambient pressure drops below a threshold value and automatically triggers without the need for any computational overhead to read the pressure or trigger the switch. The switch exploits the significant fluid interaction of a MEMS beam undergoing a large oscillation from electrostatic levitation to detect changes in ambient pressure. If the oscillation amplitude near the resonant frequency is above a threshold level, dynamic pullin is triggered and the switch is closed. The pressure at which the switch closes can be tuned by adjusting the voltage applied to the …