Abstract
With the progress of optical communication technology recently, the development of micro actuator using MEMS technology has been made for optical switching. The actuation types are various; electrostatic, electromagnetic, and electrostatic +electromagnetic etc. Among them, the electrostatic type is the most popular because of the relative ease of fabrication, integration and shielding as well as low power consumption. However, it needs a high voltage to generate a larger driving force. To overcome this problem, we proposed a new type of electrostatic actuator with an extra vertical electrode in addition to the horizontal one. The vertical electrode also lays a role of making the stable angular rotation as a stopper. From the theoretical analysis and experiment, we find the actuation voltage can be reduced up to 50 % of that of the conventional one.