• KIEE International Transactions on Electrophysics and Applications
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• v.5C no.6
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• pp.264-269
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• 2005

The electrostatic comb drive actuator is one of the main building blocks in the field of micro electro-mechanical systems (MEMS). Most of the comb actuators presented previously have fingers that are rectangular in shape which produce a stable, constant force output during actuation. The use of sawtooth fixed fingers in a comb drive, which were presumed to produce an increasing force output with displacement due to the increased number of regions where fringing force, the driving force of comb actuators, appear. The dimensions of the sawtooth were derived from finite element analysis (FEA) of simplified finger models with sawtooth type fingers of various dimension and were compared to the rectangular finger model that showed that the sawtooth type fingers have $7\~9$ times stronger driving force. Finally, comb drive actuators with sawtooth type and rectangular fingers were fabricated and although the gap was bigger, the comb actuator with sawtooth type fingers showed about 1.7 times greater electrostatic force than the one with rectangular fingers at equal driving voltages. In conclusion, using the proposed sawtooth type comb fingers in a comb drive makes it possible to increase its displacement or reduce the driving voltage.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2016.02a
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• pp.96-96
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• 2016

Nanotechnology mostly employs nano-materials and nano-structures with distinctive properties based on their size, structure, and composition. It is quite difficult to produce nano-materials and nano-structures with identical sizes, structures, and compositions in large quantities, because of spatiotemporal fluctuation of production processes. In other words, fluctuation is the bottleneck in nanotechnology. We propose three strategies to suppress such fluctuations: employing 1) difference between linear and nonlinear phenomena, 2) difference in time constants, and 3) nucleation as a bottleneck phenomenon. We are also developing nano- and micro-scale guided assembly using plasmas as a plasma nanofabrication.1-5) We manipulate nano- and micro-objects using electrostatic, electromagnetic, ion drag, neutral drag, and optical forces. The accuracy of positioning the objects depends on fluctuation of position and energy of an object in plasmas. Here we evaluate such fluctuations and discuss the mechanism behind them. We conducted in-situ evaluation of local plasma potential fluctuation using tracking analysis of fine particles (=objects) in plasmas. Experiments were carried out with a radio frequency low-pressure plasma reactor, where we set two quartz windows at the top and bottom of the reactor. Ar plasmas were generated at 200 Pa by applying 13.56MHz, 450V peak-to-peak voltage. The injected fine particles were monodisperse methyl methacrylate-polymer spheres of $10{\mu}m$ in diameter. Fine particles were injected into the reactor and were suspended around the plasma/sheath boundary near the powered electrode. We observed binary collision of fine particles with a high-speed camera. The frame rate was 1000-10000 fps. Time evolution of their distance from the center of mass was measured by tracking analysis of the two particles. Kinetic energy during the collision was obtained from the result. Potential energy formed between the two particles was deduced by assuming the potential energy plus the kinetic energy is constant. The interaction potential is fluctuated during the collision. Maximum amplitude of the fluctuation is 25eV, and the average is 8eV. The fluctuation can be caused by neutral molecule collisions, ion collisions, and fluctuation of electrostatic force. Among theses possible causes, fluctuation of electrostatic force may be main one, because the fine particle has a large negative charge of -17000e and the corresponding electrostatic force is large compared to other forces.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.27-32
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• 2002

• Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering
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• v.18 no.12
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• pp.1033-1038
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• 2006

We carried out the experiments on particle deposition onto the cleanroom wall panels. And then we investigated the particle deposition characteristic coefficients for electrostatic voltages and particle size. It was found that there is little difference in characteristics of the particle deposition between the steel panel and the anti-static coating panel. In case of that the particle size is under $1.0{\mu}m$, the particle deposition characteristic coefficient becomes larger as the electrostatic voltage induced to the cleanroom wall panel is increasing. Where in case of that the particle size is over $3.0{\mu}m$, the particle deposition characteristic coefficients do not show any differences with the electrostatic voltages. It is due to that the electrostatic force is the major particle transport mechanism for submicron particles, while the gravitational settling is the major particle transport mechanism for overmicron particles when the electro-static voltages are induced to the cleanroom wall panel.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.63-72
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• 2008

A new method for the electrostatic suspension of disk-shaped objects is proposed which is based on a time-optimal control scheme and deploys only high-voltage power supplies that can deliver dc voltages of positive and/or negative polarity. This method possesses the unique feature that no high-voltage amplifiers are needed which leads to a remarkable system simplification and objects can be suspended stably even in vacuum environment. Using this scheme, an aluminium disk used in a 3.5-inch HDD was suspended stably at an airgap of 0.3mm.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2006.05a
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• pp.263-264
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• 2006

A new method for the electrostatic suspension of disk-shaped objects is proposed which is based on a time-optimal control scheme and deploys only high-voltage power supplies that can deliver do voltages of positive and/or negative polarity. This method possesses the unique feature that no high-voltage amplifiers are needed which leads to a remarkable system simplification and objects can be suspended stably even in vacuum environment. Using this scheme, an Aluminium disk employed in a 3.5-inch HDD was suspended stably at an airgap of 0.3mm.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Machine Tool Engineers
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.65-70
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• 2008

Capacitive position sensing with modulation technique is widely used in electrostatic actuator applications. To maximize the electrostatic force and the position-sensing gain, capacitors for driving and capacitors for sensing are shared, i.e, after applying the driving voltage with high-frequency modulating signals using op amps, the position is demodulated from the modulated signal. In high-voltage applications, however, low bandwidth of a high-voltage op amp hinders adding the high-frequency modulating signal to the driving voltage. In this paper, new and very simple driving and sensing method is proposed, in which the pulse-width modulated driving voltage eliminates the need of the high-frequency modulating signal for position sensing. This new algorithm is proved by the simulation results using Matlab/SIMULINK.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers C
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• v.50 no.5
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• pp.249-252
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• 2001

The paper represents the design and fabrication of an electrostatic micro actuator with $p^+$,/TEX> Si cantilevers. The micro actuator consists of a plate suspended by four $p^+$,/TEX> silicon cantilevers and an electrode on a glass substrate. The $p^+$,/TEX> Si structure is fabricated by the boron diffusion process and the anisotropic wet etch process. The cantilevers of the micro actuator curl down because of the residual stress gradient in $p^+$,/TEX> silicon. When the electrostatic forec is applied to the $p^+$,/TEX> cantilevers, the vertical displacement of the plate can be achieved. The deflection of the cantilever due to the residual stress gradient and the vertical displacement by electrostatic force were calculated. The displacement of the plate was measured with a laser displacement meter for various input voltages and frequencies. The feasibility of the proposed micro actuator for the applications to optical pickup devices or optical communication devices was confirmed by the experiments.

• The Transactions of The Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers
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• v.56 no.8
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• pp.1441-1444
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• 2007

This paper presents a novel electrostatic drop-an-demand ejector with a conductive pole inside nozzle. The MEMS fabricated pole-type nozzle shows a significant improvement in the performance and reliability of forming meniscus and generating a micro dripping mode of droplet out of the meniscus. It is verified experimentally that the use of the pole-type nozzle. The liquid is used D20+SDS+SWNT (5 %wt). The gap between upper electrode and nozzle is about 600 um. Electrostatic drop-an-demand ejection is observed when a DC voltage of 1.5 kV is applied between the control electrode and ground electrode. Droplet diameter is $100{\mu}m$.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers C
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• v.48 no.2
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• pp.153-160
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• 1999

Dual-stage servo system for super-high density HDD has the chances of being composed of the coarse actuator(VCM) for track-seeking control and the fine actuator(microactuator) for-following control in near future. This paper presents the concept design of dual-stage servo system and the track-following control using an electrostatic microactuator for super-high density HDD. The electrostatic microactuator is designed and fabricated by MEMS(micro-electro-mechanical system) process. Both the nonlinear plant(voltage/displacement-to-electrostatic force) and the linear plant(electrostatic force-to-displacement) of the microactuator are established. Inverse function of the nonlinear plant is employed for a feedforward nonlinear compensator design. And feedforward control effect of this compensator is shown by time-domain experiments. A track-following feedback controller is designed using the feedback nonlinear compensator which is derived from the feedforward nonlinear compensator. The track-following control experiment is done to show the control efficiency of the proposed control system. And, excellent track-following control performance(2.21kHz servo-bandwidth, 7.51dB gain margin, $50.98^{\circ}$phase margin) is achieved by the proposed control system.