Abstract
Electrostatic suspension offers an advantage of directly suspending various materials such as conductive materials, semiconductors and dielectric materials without any mechanical contacts. This is a specific feature compared with electromagnetic suspension which can suspend only ferro-magnetic material. In general, the electrostatic suspension systems require position sensors for stabilizing the suspended object. Therefore, a lot of displacement sensors and a switching circuit are required for moving the object through a long distance. In order to circumvent this problem, this paper proposes a self-sensing method which can provide the gap displacement between electrodes and suspended object without external sensors. Moreover a simple on-off controller is presented for stabilization. Experimental validation of the proposed scheme has been performed through the successful levitation of a 4-inch silicon wafer.
