University of South Florida

Rahul Agarwal

Scott Samson

Shekhar Bhansali

Shinzo Onishi

Sunny Kedia

Vandana Upadhyay

The present invention provides an improved electrostatic micro actuator array system comprising a plurality of electrostatic micro actuators, each of the micro actuators further comprising at least one hold-down electrode and at least two pull-down electrodes positioned to actuate the micro actuator. A hold-down signal line is then coupled to each of the hold-down electrodes of each of the plurality of micro actuators and a plurality of first pull-down signal lines coupled to one of the at least two pull-down electrodes of each micro actuator and a plurality of second pull-down signal lines coupled to another of the at least two pull-down electrodes of each micro actuator, the first pull-down signal lines and the second pull-down signal lines configured in a cross-point matrix such that a unique pair of first pull-down signal lines and second pull-down signal lines is associated with each of the plurality of micro actuators.

Electrostatically-addressed MEMS array system and method of use

The present invention includes a novel method to fabricate corner cube retroreflectors, CCRs, where a majority of the wafer area acts as CCRs as compared to a maximum of 33% in previous MEMS CCRs. The present invention also allows for the fabrication of moveable cantilevers which operate at one-third the voltage as compared to a conventional planar cantilever.

Growing community of inventors

Clearwater, FL, United States of America

Rahul Agarwal