Pull-in study of an electrostatic torsion microactuator

Pull-in study of an electrostatic microactuator is essential for making the electrostatic actuation more effective. In this paper, pull-in analysis is presented for an electrostatic torsion microactuator. The torsion microactuator can be used as a microtorsion mirror. A polynomial algebraic equation for the pull-in voltage and pull-in angle of a torsion microactuator is derived. Two types of microactuators fabricated using bulk micromachining are presented. Measurements done on the fabricated microactuators are reported, showing deviations within 1% error from the calculations. [325] Index Terms - Electrostatic, microactuator, micromirror, pull-in, torsion.