• 제어로봇시스템학회:학술대회논문집
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• 1997.10a
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• pp.383-386
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• 1997

Electrostatic suspension is a method to levitate an object by using electrostatic forces. Its main advantage is to levitate objects without any mechanical contact which fulfills the requirement of an object handling in ultra clean environment. In this paper, the electrostatic suspension system for film-like thin plate such as aluminum sheet, is designed and controlled. In contrast with the conventional electrostatic suspension system which requires the costly and bulky high-voltage amplifiers, it is suggested to use the switching voltage control method in consideration of real industrial application for the handling of such flexible bodies. Some experimental results show that the developed electrostatic suspension system shows good performances to levitate flexible film-like thin plate.

• 제어로봇시스템학회:학술대회논문집
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• 1996.10a
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• pp.393-396
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• 1996

This paper studies electrostatically suspended induction motors (ESIM). The ESIM possesses the rotating ability of an ordinary electrostatic induction motor, in addition to providing contactless support by electrostatic suspension. To accomplish these two functions, a feedback control strategy and the operating principle of an ordinary electrostatic induction motor are used. The stator possesses electrodes which exert the electrostatic forces to the rotor and are divided into a part responsible for suspension and one for rotation. Two rotor types are utilized: a polished glass disk without any surface treatment, and a polished glass disk covered with a thin layer of conductive material (ITO layer) on only one side. In this paper, the principle of the ESIM is described, followed by stator electrode design, experimental apparatus, control strategy for stable suspension. Experimental results show that the glass disk has been rotated with a speed of approximately 70 rpm while being suspended stably at a gap length of 0.3 mm.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.25 no.6
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• pp.80-91
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• 2008

Electrostatic forces have an advantage of directly levitating not only non-ferromagnetic metals but also semiconductors, such as silicon wafers, and dielectric materials like glass. This paper describes the characteristics of electrostatic forces and electrostatic suspension system, followed by the basic principle of 1-DOF(degree of freedom) electrostatic suspension system, and the structures of electrodes-for-suspension and voltage supplying methods to the electrodes in 1-DOF model. This paper also discuss about the minimum number of electrodes needed to control n-DOF motion of the suspended object and represents some desirable electrode patterns to stabilize the 6-DOF motion of the object. In the near future, electrostatic suspension system is expected to be applied to industrial manufacturing processes, for example, to the manufacture of semiconductor devices and/or flat panel display devices.

• 제어로봇시스템학회:학술대회논문집
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• 1996.10a
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• pp.267-270
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• 1996

This paper reports about the successful suspension of a glass plate by electrostatic forces. In order to implement a stable suspension, the electrostatic forces exerted on the glass plate are actively controlled on the basis of the gap lengths between the glass plate and the stator electrodes. In this paper, the dynamic model of the suspension system and the influence of the resistivity of glass on the system stability are described, followed by stator electrode design, the experimental apparatus and a stabilizing controller. Experimental results show that the glass plate can be suspended at a gap length of about 0.3 mm. The influence of air humidity on the suspension initiation time, and the lateral dynamic characteristic are also described.

• 제어로봇시스템학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2004.08a
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• pp.950-955
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• 2004

In the manufacture of liquid crystal display devices, there is a strong demand for contactless glass plate handling devices that can manipulate a glass plate without contaminating or damaging it. To fulfill this requirement, an electrostatic transportation device for glass plates is proposed. This device can directly drive a glass plate and simultaneously provide contactless suspension by electrostatic forces. To accomplish these two functions, a feedback control strategy and the operational principle of an electrostatic induction motor are utilized. The stator possesses electrodes which exert electrostatic forces on the glass plate and are divided into a part responsible for suspension and one for transportation. To accomplish dynamic stability and a relatively fast suspension initiation time, the structure of the electrode for suspension possesses many boundaries over which potential differences are formed. In this paper, an electrode pattern suitable for the suspension of glass plates is described, followed by the structure of the transportation device and its operational principle. Experimental results show that the glass plate has been transported with a speed of approximately 25.6 mm/s while being suspended stably at a gap length of 0.3 mm.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.23 no.3 s.180
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• pp.76-85
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• 2006

In the manufacture of liquid crystal display devices, there is a strong demand for contactless glass panel handling devices that can manipulate a glass panel without contaminating or damaging it. To fulfill this requirement, an electrostatic transportation device for glass panels is proposed. This device can directly drive a glass panel and simultaneously provide contactless suspension by electrostatic forces. To accomplish these two functions, a feedback control strategy and the operational principle of an electrostatic induction motor are utilized. The stator possesses electrodes which exert electrostatic farces on the glass panel and are divided into a part responsible for suspension and one for transportation. To accomplish dynamic stability and a relatively fast suspension initiation time, the structure of the electrode for suspension possesses many boundaries over which potential differences are formed. In this paper, an electrode pattern suitable for the suspension of glass panels is described, followed by the structure of the transportation device and its operational principle. Experimental results show that the glass panel has been transported with a speed of approximately 25.6 mm/s while being suspended stably at a gap length of 0.3 mm.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2008.11a
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• pp.125-126
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• 2008

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2008.06a
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• pp.287-288
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• 2008

• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
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• v.6 no.6
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• pp.454-461
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• 2000

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.

• 제어로봇시스템학회:학술대회논문집
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• 1996.10a
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• pp.401-404
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• 1996

A new method for the electrostatic suspension of disk-shaped objects is proposed which is based on a switched-voltage control scheme. It operates according to a relay feedback control and deploys only a single high-voltage power supply capable of delivering a dc voltage of positive and/or negative polarity. In addition to the unique feature that no high-voltage amplifiers are needed, this method provides a remarkable system simplification relative to conventional methods. It is shown that despite the inherent limit cycle property of relay feedback based control, an excellent performance in vibration suppression is attained due to the presence of a relatively large squeeze film damping. In this paper, the functional principle of the switched voltage control scheme, numerical analysis, stator electrode design, and a nonlinear dynamic model of the suspension system are described. Experimental results will be presented for a 4-inch silicon wafer that clearly reveal the capability of the proposed control structure to suspend the wafer stably at an airgap length of 50 .mu.m.