-In this paper, piezoelectric actuation is compared with electrostatic actuation for application in RF-MEMS switches with respect to actuation voltage and technological implementation. The expression for the actuation voltages of electrostatic and piezoelectric actuation are discussed and compared with respect to scaling. Calculation examples show actuation voltages for a cantilever beam of 1μm...

A piezoelectric tube is shown to have linear, but non-minimum phase dynamics. The main impediment to the actuation of this piezoelectric tube is the presence of a low-frequency resonant mode which causes mechanical vibrations. A physical-model-based control method is extended to non-minimum phase systems in general and successfully applied to damp the resonant mode; leading to a vibration-free ...

Efficient actuation is crucial to obtaining optimal performance from nanoelectromechanical systems (NEMS). We employed epitaxial piezoelectric semiconductors to obtain efficient and fully integrated NEMS actuation, which is based on exploitation of the interaction between piezoelectric strain and built-in charge depletion. The underlying actuation mechanism in these depletion-mediated NEMS beco...

An innovative actuation principle is introduced in this paper to drive a rotary motor using an anisotropic piezoelectric composite laminate. The driving element is a three layer laminated beam with piezoceramics sandwiched between two anti-symmetric composite laminae. By taking advantage of material anisotropy, torsional motion can be induced from in-plane strain actuation. With such structural...

The paper deals with the mechanical behavior of a micro-beam bonded with two piezoelectric layers. The micro-beam is suspended over a fixed substrate and undergoes the both piezoelectric and electrostatic actuation. The piezoelectric layers are poled through the thickness and equipped with surface electrodes. The equation governing the micro-beam deflection under electrostatic pressure is deriv...

A piezoelectric tube of the type typically used for actuation in Scanning Tunneling Microscopes (STMs) and Atomic Force Microscopes (AFMs) is considered. Actuation of this piezoelectric tube is hampered by the presence of a lightly damped low frequency resonant mode. This resonant mode is first identified and then damped using a Positive Velocity and Position Feedback (PVPF) controller, a contr...

The authors describe a method of actuation for atomic force microscope (AFM) probes to improve imaging speed and displacement range simultaneously. Unlike conventional piezoelectric tube actuation, the proposed method involves a lever and fulcrum "seesaw" like actuation mechanism that uses a small, fast piezoelectric transducer. The lever arm of the seesaw mechanism increases the apparent displ...

A new multi-objective topology optimization method is proposed in this study for systematic design of multi-phase piezoelectric actuators. The actuator under consideration is composed of a compliant host structure equipped with piezoelectric elements, where the host structure serves as a compliant amplifier to enlarge the small stroke output generated by the actuation force of piezoelectric mat...

We report the design of a monolithic piezoelectrically actuated microelectromechanical tunable vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL). The main advantages of piezoelectric actuation compared with conventional capacitive techniques are improved wavelength control, reduced external and tilt losses, and lower power supply voltages. The details of the piezoelectric actuation scheme for a 98...

The aim of this paper is to propose a complete normalized study of a diaphragm's behavior under classical excitation encountered in microsystem: pneumatic, electrostatic, piezoelectric and magnetic. The principle of modeling is widely described in order to be easily applied to other structure. First, a traditional analytical solution is recalled for the diaphragm's deflection based on energy mi...