Design and Fabrication of Polymer Electrostatic Comb-Drive Actuators for Micro Conveyer Systems

We propose the design, simulation and preliminary fabrication of Micro Conveyer Systems (MCS) based on polymer electrostatic comb-drive actuators using polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA). This MCS consists of linear comb actuators, rotational comb actuators, micro containers, and a ratchet mechanism. Micro containers, used for carrying micro and nano samples such as protein, cells, are moved by comb-actuators through the ratchet mechanism. The silicon MCS was fabricated and checked to confirm characteristics and working principles. Each PMMA MCS, which has dimension of 1x1cm2, will be fabricated by using hot embossing technique or X-ray lithography. A silicon mold has to be fabricated first by using silicon wafer and ICP-RIE process. Salient advantages of PMMA comb-drive actuators are low cost, high throughput and consuming less energy compared with the counterpart using silicon because PMMA has a lower Young's modulus.