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

这个第二阶段项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力是最近设计的微型机电致动器技术的进一步发展和成熟，在消费电子，汽车和生物医学行业的潜在应用。 任何具有运动部件的电动系统都需要将电能转换为机械运动的致动器。 这包括机器人，手术/医疗微型设备，精密微/纳米定位系统，光学和超声成像系统等。 仅用于光学图像稳定（OIS）和自动对焦（AF）的紧凑型相机模块（CCM）中嵌入的毫米级机电致动器的市场规模目前超过30亿美元，预计到2025年将超过50亿美元。 同样的致动器技术也可以应用于各种其他应用，如紧凑型扬声器，超声波换能器，光探测和测距（LIDAR）设备。这个小型企业创新研究第二阶段项目利用新建立的蜂窝静电致动器技术，展示了一种低成本，高能效，高性能的解决方案，用于紧凑型相机模块的自动对焦和光学图像稳定。 透镜堆栈相对于图像传感器的物理移动在用于自动对焦（AF）以及经由光学图像稳定（OIS）的抖动消除的相机中是必不可少的。 目前用于解决这些功能的音圈电机（VCM）相对笨重、缓慢、耗电且昂贵。 通过最先进的微机械加工技术，所提出的致动器内的力产生超窄静电间隙提供了单位体积的高功输出，接近100%的能源效率。 在这个项目下，为了实现一个可行的产品原型，机械位移放大器和减震结构将被设计和集成在硅芯片沿着致动器。 该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

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.