Design and Fabrication of Electrostatically Actuated Synthetic Microjets

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to design and fabricate efficient electrostatically actuated synthetic microjets. For this, special attention is given to the coupling between the electrostatic actuation, the solid deformation of the membrane, and the generated fluid flow. In particular, the motion of the membrane, which is critical in generating the jet flow, is studied using the energy method applied to the large displacement of plates, which, in turn, leads to a relation between the required voltage and the membrane deformation. The flow is then deduced. Finally, we present an efficient method to microfabricate such devices.