Electrostatic actuator with novel shaped cantilever

This paper presents the deflection characteristics of electrostatic actuators, which have shape modified electrodes and cantilevers. In order to investigate how to get a large deflection with a low voltage, various structures are examined by a numerical calculation. Maximum deflections, just before a cantilever is pulled into an electrode, are evaluated. The numerical analysis shows that the triangular electrode with a triangular cantilever gives large deflection with a low applied voltage. To realize the triangular cantilever, a novel fabrication process by a double exposure method is proposed. The experimental results show that the triangular like cantilevers have excellent performance for deflection characteristics, which agrees well with the calculation results.