Fabrication of an Electrothermally Actuated Electrostatic Microgripper

A novel electrostatic microgripper, which can grip and release micro objects with the electrostatic force, has been designed and fabricated. It consists of gripping part with one inner and two outer electrodes, and releasing part with an electrothermal actuator. It grips micro objects using electric field generated between the electrodes, and releases them using the backward motion of inner electrode with electrothermal actuation. The backward motion of inner electrode breaks the electric field and rapidly reduces the remaining charges of objects. The graspless work shows the safe object handling method and also suggests the solution for the releasing problem. The inner electrode achieves 23μm backward motion at 100mA, and the microgripper successfully grips glass beads with 170μm diameter at 250V.