A nonlinear electrostatic actuator with near zero impact velocity, low driving voltage and large stable travel

This paper presents a nonlinear electrostatic actuator which utilizes the nonlinear mechanical properties of the classical clamped-guided beam springs with large deform­ation to slow impact velocity of the movable plates. The initial stiffness of the spring is very small but increases significantly with the displacement. In this way, the increased kinetic energy would be limited. At the same time, because of the small initial stiffness, a lower driving voltage can generate enough kinetic energy to overcome the restoration force to reach a dynamical pull-in stage. The experiments indicated that the impact velocity was 0.67cm/s. The driving voltage is 49% lower than the linear spring counterpart. The static stable travel is extended to about 56.5% of the initial gap in theory.