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A rotary comb-actuated microgripper with a large displacement range

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Abstract

This paper reports a novel design for electrostatic microgrippers. The new structure utilizes rotary comb actuators to solve the pull-in problem of microgrippers during large displacement manipulation and therefore avoids the widely used conversion systems which necessitate a high driving voltage. The gripper is fabricated using a SOI process with a 60 μm structural layer. Test results show the gripper obtained a displacement of 94 μm with an applied voltage of 100 V. An animal hair is gripped to demonstrate the applicability of the gripper for micro object manipulations.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to acknowledge the financial support from Chinese National Science Foundation (Grant Number: 60976087), Chinese New Century Excellent Talents in University (Grant number: NCET-10-0077), and the Programme of Introducing Talents of Discipline to Universities.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Micro/Nano Systems for Aerospace, Ministry of Education, Northwestern Polytechnical University, 710072, Xi’an, China

    Honglong Chang, Haitao Zhao, Fang Ye, Guangmin Yuan, Jianbing Xie & Weizheng Yuan

  2. Integrated Micro and Nano Systems, Faculty of Engineering Sciences, University of Duisburg-Essen, 57057, Duisburg, Germany

    Michael Kraft

Authors
  1. Honglong Chang
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  2. Haitao Zhao
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  3. Fang Ye
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  4. Guangmin Yuan
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  5. Jianbing Xie
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  6. Michael Kraft
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  7. Weizheng Yuan
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Honglong Chang.

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Chang, H., Zhao, H., Ye, F. et al. A rotary comb-actuated microgripper with a large displacement range. Microsyst Technol 20, 119–126 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00542-013-1737-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00542-013-1737-8

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