• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2004.10a
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• pp.250-253
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• 2004

This study deals with the microvalve, which is composed of the multilayer bender type PZT actuator, actuator controller and microvalve body. The object of this study is to develope the microvalve with multilayer bender type PZT actuator. In order to achieve this object, prototype PZT actuator and microvalve were suggested and manufactured. Also, the performance of this model was evaluated through the experiments.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2007.05a
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• pp.979-984
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• 2007

This paper presents a new control mechanism for the proportional pressure control which is accomplished by electro-pneumatic regulator using two PZT actuators. The electro-pneumatic regulator of this study is 2-stage type and consists of two piezoelectric actuators, a controller and a main poppet valve. The piezoelectric actuators are multilayer bender type and are controlled by digital signal. Proportional pressure control technique is very important because that can derive improvement of product quality and driving ability in the pneumatic system. Solenoid actuator method for pressure control is widely used but this actuator has a high power consumption characteristics. So new actuator is required for the energy saving. In this study, PZT actuator for the pressure control was fabricated and experimented instead of the conventional type solenoid actuator. Experiments for the new control mechanism of the elector-pneumatic regulator were operated under the input condition of 0.4[MPa] and it was confirmed that this mechanism has a good control characteristics to the response sensitivity and hysteresis.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2008.11a
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• pp.193-193
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• 2008

Wearable and ubiquitous micro systems will be greatly growing and their related devices should be self-powered in order to avoid the replacement of finite power sources, for example, by scavenging energy from the environment. With ever reducing power requirements of both analog and digital circuits, power scavenging approaches are becoming increasingly realistic. One approach is to drive an electromechanical converter from ambient motion or vibration. Vibration-driven generators based on electromagnetic, electrostatic and piezoelectric technologies have been demonstrated. Among various generator types proposed so far, piezoelectric generator possesses considerable potential in micro system. To overcome low mechanical-to-electric energy conversion, the piezoelectric device should activate in resonance mode in response to external vibration. Normally, the external vibration excretes at low frequency ranging 0.1 to 200 Hz, whereas the resonant frequencies of the devices are fixed as constant. Therefore, keeping their resonant mode in varying external vibration can be one of important points in enhancing the conversion efficiency. We investigated the possibility of use of multi-bender type piezoelectric devices. To match the external vibration frequency with the device resonant frequency, the various devices with different resonant frequency were chosen.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 1997.10a
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• pp.1067-1071
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• 1997

A new type of gripper for micrometer-size objects is developed using piezoelectric multi-layer benders. It is composed of three chopsticks, two of which are designed to grip micro-objects. The third one is reserved for helping the two when objects are released from the chopsticks. It is well known that a micro object is much easier to grasp than to release it after holding it. The electrostatic force between the chopsticks and an object is believed to be the main cause of adhesion in a dry environment. The surface tension becomes very important when liquids are present or in a liquid. The third auxiliary chopsticks is introduced to solve there surface effects. All the three chopsticks are made of tungsten wires with sharpened ends by etching. When grasping microparts, the two chopsticks are utilized, and, when releasing them anywhere the parts are located, the third one reduces the electrostatic force between the objects and the chopstick may be to help the other two chopsticks to hold an objects in a desired orientation. We constructed the three chopstick gripoer for micro objects and test their function by holding and releasing an object of a diameter of 100 micrometers. We make use of open loop voltage control. The bender displacement resolution is sub-micrometer. The gripping forces, about tens of mN are obtained. The experiment shows that the third auxiliary chopstick functions effectively.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2003.06a
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• pp.246-250
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• 2003

In this study, two new types of micro-grippers in which micro-fingers are actuated by piezoelectric multi-layer benders and stacks are introduced for the manipulation of micrometer-sized objects. First, we constructed a 3-chopstick-mechanism tungsten gripper, which is composed of three chopsticks: two are designed to grip micro-objects, and tile third is used to help grasp and release the objects through overcoming especially electrostatic force among some surface effects including electrostatic, van der Waals forces and surface tension. Second, a 2-chopstick-mechanism silicon micro-gripper that uses an integrated force sensor to control the gripping force was developed. The micro-gripper is composed of a piezoelectric multilayer bender for actuating the gripper fingers, silicon fingertips fabricated by use of silicon-based micromachining, and supplementary supports. The micro-gripper is referred to as a hybrid-type micro-gripper because it is composed of two main components; micro-fingertips fabricated using micromachining technology to integrate a very sensitive force sensor for measuring the gripping force, and piezoelectric gripper finger actuators that are capable of large gripping forces and moving strokes. The gripping force signal was found to have a sensitivity of 667 N/V. To the design of each of components of both of the grippers. a systematic design approach was applied, which made it possible to establish the functional requirements and design parameters of the micro-grippers. The micro-grippers were installed on a manual manipulator to assess its performance in tasks such as moving micro-objects from one position to a desired position. The experiment showed that the micro-grippers function effectively.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2007.11a
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• pp.261-261
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• 2007

Wearable and ubiquitous micro systems will be greatly growing and their related devices should be self-powered in order to avoid the replacement of finite power sources, for example, by scavenging energy from the environment. With ever reducing power requirements of both analog and digital circuits, power scavenging approaches are becoming increasingly realistic. One approach is to drive an electromechanical converter from ambient motion or vibration. Vibration-driven generators based on electromagnetic, electrostatic and piezoelectric technologies have been demonstrated. Among various generator types proposed so far, piezoelectric generator possesses considerable potential in micro system. To overcome low mechanical-to- electric energy conversion, the piezoelectric device should activate in resonance mode in response to external vibration. Normally, the external vibration excretes at low frequency ranging 0.1 to 200 Hz, whereas the resonant frequencies of the devices are fixed as constant. Therefore, keeping their resonant mode in varying external vibration can be one of important points in enhancing the conversion efficiency. We investigated the possibility of use of multi-bender type piezoelectric devices. To match the external vibration frequency with the device resonant frequency, the various devices with different resonant frequency were chosen. Under an external vibration acceleration of 0.1G at 120 Hz, the device exhibited a peak-to-peak voltage of 2.8 V and a power of 0.5 mw in resonance mode.