Electrostatic clutch

Abstract

Provided is an electrostatic clutch. The electrostatic clutch includes: multiple arrays of HIN electrodes, a respective pass-through channel being formed between any two arrays of the multiple arrays of HIN electrodes; and multiple arrays of biased electrodes, each array of the multiple arrays of biased electrodes moving back and forth in the respective pass-through channel such that electrostatic force is generated between the multiple arrays of biased electrodes and the multiple arrays of HIN electrodes. Such configuration allows microphone performance over a wide range of atmospheric pressures which is likely expected by applications. This is achieved electrostatically in a purely passive way having advantages over other designs which require complex electronics and active control. Physically decoupling the membrane and sense structure simplifies design of the sense structure as only small AC perturbations of the rotor is considered with no DC changes in rotor position.