• Proceedings of the SAREK Conference
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• 2006.06a
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• pp.477-482
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• 2006

In this study, a micro vapor compressor has been designed, fabricated and tested. The micro vapor compressor was made of silicon substrates and fabricated by micromachining process. The compressor is driven by a piezoelectric actuator which is widely used in microfluidic systems because of its strong force and rapid response. The actuator is a bimorph structure which consists of a silicon membrane and a piezoelectric ceramic film. A simulation work was conducted on the performance characteristics of the compressor. The simulation investigated the flow rate variation under various back pressure conditions. Experimental works were carried out on the operation of a compressor and the test results were compared with the simulation results.

• International Journal of Aeronautical and Space Sciences
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.69-77
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• 2011

A peristaltic micropump with lightweight piezo-composite actuator (LIPCA) membrane valves is presented. The micropump contained three cylinder chambers that were connected by microchannels and two active membrane valves. A circular miniature LIPCA was developed and manufactured to be used as actuating diaphragms. The LIPCA diaphragm acted as an active membrane valve that alternate between open and closed positions at the inlet and outlet in order to produce high pumping pressure. In this LIPCA, a lead zirconium titanate ceramic with a thickness of 0.1 mm was used as an active layer. The results confirmed that the actuator produced a large out-of-plane deflection. During the design process, a coupled field analysis was conducted in order to predict the actuating behavior of the LIPCA diaphragm; the behavior of the actuator was investigated from both a theoretical and experimental perspective. The active membrane valve concept was introduced as a means for increasing pumping pressure, and microelectromechanical system techniques were used to fabricate the peristaltic micropump. The pumping performance was analyzed experimentally in terms of the flow rate, pumping pressure and power consumption.

• Tribology and Lubricants
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.47-55
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• 1996

In this study, steady state and perturbed pressures are experimentally measured under inherently compensated restrictors in externally pressurized air bearings. A piezo actuator is used for simulating small displacement perturbation in the air film. The pressures under the restrictors are measured by a miniature type pressure transducer and the height of the air film is measured by capacitance type gap sensors developed by Chapman's method. The perturbed pressure is obtained through Fourier transformation of the two signals. The measured perturbed pressures are in good agreement with the calculated values.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.23 no.3 s.180
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• pp.163-170
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• 2006

Thin films play an important role in many technological applications including microelectronic devices, magnetic storage media, MEMS and surface coatings. It is well known that a thin film's material properties can be very different front the corresponding bulk properties and thus there has been a strong need for the development of a miniature tester to measure the mechanical properties of a thin film. Two testers are designed and set up in small size of 62 mm width, 20 mm depth and 90-120 mm height to fit in a chamber of scanning electron microscope (SEM). One tester has a homemade 0.2 N load cell and a low-priced electromagnetic actuator. The other has a commercial 5 N load cell, a $52{\mu}m$ piezoelectric actuator and some novel grips. Two types of 3.5 microns thick polysilicon specimen are tested to prove the testers' applicability. The strain is measured by the two ways. Firstly, it is measured by an ISDG system in the atmosphere far the reference. Secondly, the same test is repeated in a SEM chamber to monitor the strain as an in-situ experiment. The strain is evaluated by observing the gap change between two markers.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.15 no.12
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• pp.142-147
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• 1998

Developing robot hands with multi-degree-of-freedom is one of the topics that researchers have recently begun to improve the limitation by adding flexibility and dexterity. In this study, an articulated servo-pneumatic robot hand system with direct-drive joints has been developed whose main feature is the minimization of the dimension. The servo-pneumatic system is advantageous to fabricate a dexterous robot hand system due to the high torque-to-weight and torque-to-volume ratio. This enables the design of a finger joint with an integrated rotary vane type actuator which produces high output torque without reduction gears, being very robust. In order to control the servo-pneumatic finger joints, a miniature proportional valve that can be attached to the robot hand is required. In this paper, a flapper nozzle type 4/3-way proportional directional valve has been designed and tested. The experimental results show that the developed valve can control a finger joint satisfactorily without much vibratory joint movements and acoustic noises.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.7 no.5
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• pp.365-378
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• 2011

Piezo-based active structural health monitoring (SHM) requires amplifiers specifically designed for capacitive loads. Moreover, with the increase in number of applications of wireless SHM systems, energy efficiency and cost reduction for this type of amplifiers is becoming a requirement. General lab grade amplifiers are big and costly, and not built for outdoor environments. Although some piezoceramic power amplifiers are available in the market, none of them are specifically targeting the wireless constraints and low power requirements. In this paper, a piezoceramic transducer amplifier for wireless active SHM systems has been designed. Power requirements are met by two digital On/Off switches that set the amplifier in a standby state when not in use. It provides a stable ${\pm}180$ Volts output with a bandwidth of 7k Hz using a single 12 V battery. Additionally, both voltage and current outputs are provided for feedback control, impedance check, or actuator damage verification. Vibration control tests of an aluminum beam were conducted in the University of Houston lab, while wireless active SHM tests of a wind turbine blade were performed in the Harbin Institute of Technology wind tunnel. The results showed that the developed amplifier provided equivalent results to commercial solutions in suppressing structural vibrations, and that it allows researchers to perform active wireless SHM on moving objects with no power wires from the grid.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Military Science and Technology
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.392-400
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• 2019

This paper provides a fin actuation system of missile based on electromagnetic-spring mechanism to miniaturize the system and lower the cost. Compared with proportional electro-mechanical actuators, the output of Electromagnetic-Spring Actuators(EMSA) has two or three discrete states, but the mechanical configuration of EMSA is simple since it does not need power trains like gears. The simple mechanism of EMSA makes it easy to build small size, low cost, and relatively high torque actuators. However, fast response time is required to improve the dynamic performance and accuracy of missiles since bang-off-bang operation of EMSA affects the flight performance of missile. In this paper the development of EMSA including parameter optimization and mathematical modeling is described. The simulation results using Simulink and experimental test results of prototype EMSAs are presented.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering Conference
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• 2002.11b
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• pp.794-798
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• 2002

This paper deals with a moving coil type linear motor for fast access of the miniature ODD. This slim-line motor is composed of the mover supported by guide mechanism, the coil wound into it, and the yoke attached to the permanent magnet for stator. The driving force is generated by the PM of the stator and the current in the coils of the mover. Magnetic circuit analysis and Finite Element Method are applied to estimate the thrust force at air gap. In order to compare the force characteristics between two methods, various experiment results are applied to verify on a prototype. Also the flexible modes of the motor are predicted through the FEM and the structural components are modified to locate this on high frequency region.

• Journal of KSNVE
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• v.6 no.5
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• pp.555-565
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• 1996

This paper is concerned with the theoretical and experimental study on the force control of a miniature robotic finger that grasps an object at three other positions with the fingertip. The artificial finger is a uniform flexible cantilever beam equipped with a distributed set of compact grasping force sensors. Control action is applied by a piezoceramic bimorph strip placed at the base of the finger. The mathematical model of the assembled electro- mechanical system is developed. The distributed sensors are described by a set of concentrated mass-spring system. The formulated equations of motion are then applied to a control problem in which the finger is commanded to grasp an object. The H$_{\infty}$-controller is introduced to drive the finger. The usefulness of the proposed control technique is verified by simulation and experiment..

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering Conference
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• 2000.06a
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• pp.274-279
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• 2000

Driving of the engine makes unbalance forces which induces vibration to the engine mount system. Active vibration control must be performed to reduce the vibration and the propagation of structure-born sound. In this study, the engine system is modeled as 3-dim. vibration system including flexible structures and an effective active noise control method is proposed. Also, appropriate actuator and sensor locations and types are selected. The miniature of the engine vibration system with multi-input multi-output is built and an active vibration control with multiple filtered-X LMS algorithm is applied to it. The applied control method was effective to reduce the transmitted vibration power through the rubber mount It showed the feasibility of the control of the engine vibration systems with flexible structures.