Abstract: The present invention relates to a non-contact actuator located on a substrate and at least including a plate and a bushing. When a voltage is applied externally, the plate is bent by the attraction of the substrate and won't be contacted with the substrate. A counteraction force is generated when the plate withstands the electrostatic force of the substrate. After the voltage is removed, the counteraction force and an elastic tension generated by recovering from a curved state of the plate to an original state are employed to generate bouncing motion of the plate and the bushing and further proceed step movement of the actuator. Because of no friction between the plate and the substrate, the present invention only requires a rather small voltage and consumes the minimum current so as to lower the driving voltage and reduce the current consumption and defacement of device for longer lifespan.

Abstract: The present invention relates to a micro actuator, which is located on a substrate and includes a plate and a bushing. A rear end of the plate exhibits a tapered triangular shape or an arc-like shape or has at least a bump disposed on a bottom surface of the rear end of the plate, making that a non-planar contact is present between the rear end of the plate and the substrate when both are contacted, so as to effectively reduce the friction and driving voltage and prolong the lifespan of components.

Abstract: Provided is a new design and fabrication of scratch drive actuator (SDA) micro rotary motor with low driving voltage and high lifetime characteristics. To substantially reduce the driving voltage from 30˜150 Vo-p to 12˜30 Vo-p ac amplitude, a silicon wafer with very low resistivity (<0.004 ?-cm) was firstly adopted as the substrate of SDA micro motor. Furthermore, a novel SDA structure and geometric design for the improvement of lifetime (>75 hrs) and rotational speed (˜30 rpm) of SDA micro motor was also demonstrated in this patent.

Abstract: Provided is the design and fabrication of the novel bounce drive actuator (BDA) for the development of a new-type micro rotary motor. Although the scratch drive actuator (SDA) micro motor has been developed more than one decade, such device has limited commercial applications due to its shorter lifetime, high power consumption and sudden reverse rotation. In contrast, present invention proposes an innovative BDA micro rotary motor with different actuating mechanism and improved performance. Several significant investigations shown in this research present that the length of the SDA-plate is longer than 75 ?m and the plate length of the BDA is less than 75 ?m. Under the same driving power and frequency with SDA-based micro motor, the BDA-based micro rotary motor exhibited a consistent “reverse” rotation and a higher speed.

Abstract: Based on the voltage-division theory, this invention proposes a new method to decrease the driving voltage of the micro scratch drive actuator (SDA) by using an ultra-low resistivity silicon wafer as substrate. This patent has compared two SDA actuators with the same layout and fabricating processes but under different resistivity of substrate. The SDA fabricated on the ultra-low resistivity silicon wafer has demonstrated a lower driving voltage of only about 4˜12 Vo-p. However, the conventional SDA using normal silicon wafer needs higher driving voltage (30˜75 Vo-p), thus has lower probability for commercial applications. On the other hand, this invention presents a new SDA process to overcome the inherent 2 ?m line-width limitation of conventional mask aligner with 4360 ? UV wavelength light source (g-line) and further to reduce the driving voltage of SDA.

Abstract: To improve the yield, lifetime and driving voltage of the micro scratch drive actuator (SDA), this invention proposes a novel layout design including the etch holes and flange structure designs. Once the etch holes added to the layout of conventional SDA plate, the releasing of structure layer can be accelerated and the accumulated residual charges in the front end of SDA plate is reduced. In this innovative design, a longer lifetime and lower driving voltage of the SDA device can be achieved. On the other hand, adding the flange structure design in the corner of the beam-to-plate conjunction can improve the flexural rigidity of the narrow polysilicon supporting beam which will further enhance the yield of the SDA device and reduce the crack failure under actuating situation.

Abstract: The invention presents a novel polyimide-based thin film self-assembly technology, including five process steps described as follows: (1) deposits a sacrificial layer and a low-stress microstructure layer on a silicon substrate; (2) patterns and etches the low-stress microstructure layer to provide a stationary part and a movable part of the microstructure; (3) coats a photosensitive polyimide thin film as elastic joint of the microstructure layer and defines the shape by using photolithography technique; (4) releases the sacrificial layer beneath the movable part of microstructure layer by wet etching; (5) lastly proceeds the reflow process of polyimide to result in the contraction of the elastic joint further to rotate and lift the movable part in completion of the self-assembly of the microstructure. As the invention can be extensively applied to a myriad of miniaturizing industries, it can solve all the drawbacks of the prior art manufacturing process and miniaturization.

Abstract: The invention relates to a self-assembly microstructure with a polyimide thin-film elastic joint, which contains at least one stationary part of the microstructure and at least one movable part of the microstructure. An elastic joint located between the stationary part and the movable part is a photosensitive polyimide thin film material. The polyimide elastic joint is contracted after high-temperature reflow process. The surface tension force of cured polyimide can rotate and lift-up the movable part of the microstructure in completion of the self-assembly of the microstructure.

Abstract: The invention presents a novel polyimide-based thin film self-assembly technology, including five process steps described as follows: (1) deposits a sacrificial layer and a low-stress microstructure layer on a silicon substrate; (2) patterns and etches the low-stress microstructure layer to provide a stationary part and a movable part of the microstructure; (3) coats a photosensitive polyimide thin film as elastic joint of the microstructure layer and defines the shape by using photolithography technique; (4) releases the sacrificial layer beneath the movable part of microstructure layer by wet etching; (5) lastly proceeds the reflow process of polyimide to result in the contraction of the elastic joint further to rotate and lift the movable part in completion of the self-assembly of the microstructure. As the invention can be extensively applied to a myriad of miniaturizing industries, it can solve all the drawbacks of the prior art manufacturing process and miniaturization.