SBIR Phase II: Long Stroke Micromachined Arrayed Cell Electrostatic Actuators for Highly Integrated Micro-Positioning

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The broader impact/commercial potential of this Phase II project is further advancement and maturation of a recently devised miniature electromechanical actuator technology with potential applications in the consumer electronics, automotive and biomedical industries. Any electrically powered system with moving parts requires actuators converting electrical energy into mechanical motion. This includes robots, surgical/medical micro-devices, precision micro/nano-positioning systems, and optical and ultrasonic imaging systems among others. The market size for millimeter-scale electromechanical actuators embedded in compact camera modules (CCM) for Optical Image Stabilization (OIS) and Auto-Focusing (AF) alone is currently over $3B and expected to reach over $5B by 2025. The same actuator technology can also be applied to a variety of other applications such as compact speakers, ultrasonic transducers, and light detection and ranging (LIDAR) devices.This Small Business Innovation Research Phase II project utilizes the newly established cellular electrostatic actuator technology to demonstrate a low cost, power efficient, high-performance solution for auto-focusing and optical image stabilization in compact camera modules. Physical movement of the lens stack with respect to the image sensor is essential in cameras for Auto-Focusing (AF) as well as shake cancellation via Optical Image Stabilization (OIS). Voice Coil Motors (VCM) currently used to address such functionalities are relatively bulky, slow, power hungry, and costly. Enabled by the state-of-the-art micromachining techniques, force generating ultra-narrow electrostatic gaps within the proposed actuators offer high work output per volume with close to 100% energy efficiency. Under this project, for realization of a viable product prototype, mechanical displacement amplifiers and shock absorbing structures will be designed and integrated within the silicon chips along with the actuators. Comprehensive mechanical shock tests on loaded actuators as well as long-term electrical reliability and mechanical durability tests will be performed on the fabricated prototypes.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.