The stable travel range of parallel-plate electrostatic actuator with a linear suspension flexure is limited to a third of the nominal gap due to the pull-in instability resulting from the inherent nonlinear behavior of electrostatic force. To overcome this problem, the nonlinear suspension flexure that can counteract the nonlinearity of electrostatic force is widely adopted. Based on this concept, we present a novel method for designing a customized nonlinear micro-flexure with monotonically increasing stiffness. The mechanism is characterized that an ejector rod consisting of the double clamped-guided beams slides along a geometrically customized trajectory patterned on the slider, and thus, a prescribed force-displacement relationship in horizontal direction is generated. To validate this design concept, two specific flexures, a mimic-electrostatic-nonlinearity flexure, whose restoring force varies with the electrostatic force, and a seventh-order nonlinear flexure, whose flexure force is proportional to the eighth power of the deflection, were designed and fabricated on the silicon-on-insulator wafer. The experimental results show that the measured force-displacement curves for two nonlinear flexures are in good agreement with the theoretical predictions. In addition, the proposed method can be also introduced to other systems, in which the prescribed nonlinearity is needed. [2018-0240]

中文翻译：

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用于扩展 MEMS 静电执行器稳定行程范围的定制非线性微弯曲

由于静电力的固有非线性行为引起的拉入不稳定性，具有线性悬挂挠曲的平行板静电致动器的稳定行程范围被限制在标称间隙的三分之一。为了克服这个问题，可以抵消静电力非线性的非线性悬挂挠曲被广泛采用。基于这个概念，我们提出了一种新的方法来设计具有单调增加刚度的定制非线性微弯曲。该机构的特点是由双夹紧导向梁组成的顶出杆沿滑块上图案化的几何定制轨迹滑动，从而在水平方向上产生规定的力-位移关系。为了验证这个设计概念，两个特定的弯曲，在绝缘体上硅晶片上设计并制造了一个模拟静电非线性挠曲，其恢复力随静电力而变化，以及一个七阶非线性挠曲，其挠曲力与偏转的八次方成正比。 . 实验结果表明，测得的两个非线性弯曲的力-位移曲线与理论预测非常吻合。此外，所提出的方法也可以引入到其他需要规定非线性的系统中。[2018-0240] 实验结果表明，测得的两个非线性弯曲的力-位移曲线与理论预测非常吻合。此外，所提出的方法也可以引入到其他需要规定非线性的系统中。[2018-0240] 实验结果表明，测得的两个非线性弯曲的力-位移曲线与理论预测非常吻合。此外，所提出的方法也可以引入到其他需要规定非线性的系统中。[2018-0240]