Advantages of Electrostatic Micromotor and Its

Application to Medical Instruments

Wang Xinli Cui Shumei Cheng Shukang
Dept. of Electrical Engineering
Harbin Institute of Technology
Harbin,150001 CHINA
e-mail:deagle@public.hr.hl.cn

AbstractIn this paper, electrostatic micromotor and

conventional electromagnetic micromotor are compared.
II. SCALING ANALYSIS OF DRIVING FORCES
According to their different operation principles, the paper Some physical quantities are sensitive to scale, another
firstly analyzes the scaling effect of driving forces. Characteristic ones are not, which is called scaling effect. In micro domain,
dimension L represents the linear scale of the micromotors. scaling effect is very important. Let characteristic dimension
Electromagnetic driving force is proportional to high-order of micromotors be L . It represents the linear scale of
power of characteristic dimension L whereas electrostatic
micromotors, such as: stator-to-rotor gap, length of stator,
diameter of rotor core etc. It is assumed that all dimensions of
driving force is not. So, in micro domain, the effect of
micromotors are scaled down by the same factor when L is
electrostatic force is larger than that of electromagnetic force, decreased.
which makes electrostatic micromotor more competitive against
electromagnetic alternative in MEMS. In assessing the
A. Scaling Analysis of Electromagnetic Force
performance of micromotor, the power per unit volume and
efficiency are the two most important criteria. Hence, the paper For conventional dc electromagnetic micromotor, its
further compares the two kinds of micromotors from these two armature windings are energized. The interaction of
aspects. The results indicate that electrostatic micromotor has
current-carrying conductors and gap magnetic field produces
electromagnetic driving force. Let average gap flux density on
higher power per unit volume and efficiency, moreover, its
the surface of armature be Bδ (av ) and branch current of
structure is sample, it can be made sufficiently small. For those
advantages of electrostatic micromotor, the paper finally current-carrying conductors be i a . According to current-field
discusses its application to medical instruments. interaction (Lorentz) method, electromagnetic force acting on
current-carrying conductors is
keywordsscaling effect; characteristic dimension; medical
Instrument.
F = Z a Bδ ( av ) li a . (1)
I. INTRODUCTION
The growth of interest on Micro Electro Mechanical where Z a  effective conductors number;
System (MEMS) is so rapid recently. The applications of
MEMS to some areas seem especially promising: space l  effective length of conductors.
exploration, biomedical engineering and electronics assembly. Bδ (av ) in (1) can be calculated by flux Φ of one pole,
MEMS is consist of microstructures, microactuators,
microsensors and corresponding control circuits.
Microactuators used in MEMS include: electrostatic Φ
micromotor, electromagnetic micromotor, piezoeletric Bδ ( av ) = . (2)
material, shape memory-alloy device, and others. Although lτ
electromagnetic motor is extensively used as actuator in macro
domain, on sufficiently small size scales, electrostatic where τ  pole pitch.
micromotor has appealing advantages. In the paper, When magnetic saturation is neglected,
electrostatic micromotor and conventional electromagnetic
micromotor are compared from some aspects: scaling effect of
driving forces, structure, power per unit volume and efficiency. Φ=KfIf . (3)
According to the characteristic features of electrostatic
micromotor, in the last, the paper briefly discusses
electrostatic micromotor’s application to medical instruments. where K f  constant coefficient;

I f  exciting current.

So that,

0-7803-7420-7/02/$17.00 © 2002 IEEE

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 KfIf KfIf micromotor is based on the force which electric field acts on
F = Za li a = Z a ia . (4) charges distributed on surfaces. Output power is just
lτ τ determined by physical properties of surface layer of materials.
Hence, the axial length of the micromotor could be smaller
It is assumed current density is constant, i.e. J = [ L0 ] . So, with respect to its diameter. Furthermore, electric field
intensity of gap between stator and rotor is independent of
I ∝ [ L2 ] and electromagnetic driving force F ∝ [ L3 ] . thickness of electrodes, electrodes can be made very thin. So,
As analysis above, if characteristic dimension L of electrostatic micromotor is suitable for miniaturization from
electromagnetic motor decreases by a factor of ten, structure aspect. Its typical diameter of rotor is about 100 µm .
electromagnetic force will reduce by a factor of thousand. As previously mentioned, power per unit volume of
When the dimensions of the motor are reduced to millimeter electrostatic micromotor is proportional to the square of
and sub-millimeter range, the effect of electromagnetic driving electric field intensity. When gap between stator and rotor is
force is very poor. Clearly, it isn’t a suitable driving force in decreased below 4 µm , breakdown field intensity sharply
micro domain.
increases. It can be reach a value of 3 × 10 8 V / m , which is
B. Scaling Analysis of Electrostatic Force close to the value in vacuum. Hence, power per unit volume of
The operation principle of variable-capacitance electrostatic micromotor can compete with that of
electromagnetic micromotor [2].
electrostatic micromotor is similar to that of parallel plate
capacitor. When a bias voltage V is subjected to one pair of About efficiency, parasitic current of electrostaic
electrodes of stator and rotor, the electrical energy is micromotor is very small, which means that its energy losses
are little and efficiency is high. Of course, there are some
difficulties in making the micromotor, such as material
ε r ε 0 xlV 2 properties, technology level etc.
We = — . (5)
2δ For electromagnetic micromotor, due to its complicate
structure, its dimensions are hard to be done below 1 mm .
The minus sign is a result of including the energy lost by the With the dimensions of the micromotor becoming smaller,
voltage source. magnetic field intensity is restricted by temperature rise
caused by heat generated inside the windings. In addition,
Where x  overlapping width of facing electrodes of stator because of property features of magnetic materials and
and rotor; leakage flux, the power per unit volume of electromagnetic
micromotor will be further reduced. The heat generated in the
l  length of electrode; coils of the micromotor becomes comparable to its input
δ  stator-to-rotor gap; power. Hence, the micromotor’s efficiency is low. From those
aspects, it is shown that electromagnetic micromotor loses
ε 0  vacuum permittivity; advantages with its size decreasing.
ε r  relative permittivity. IV. THE APPLICATION OF ELECTROSTATIC
MICROMOTOR TO MEDICAL INSTRUMENT
The electrostatic force is calculated in terms of We
At present, traditional operation is gradually replaced by
minimally invasive surgery (MIS). MIS as a powerful
technique is beneficial to reducing cost of treatment and
∂W e 1 ∂ xlV 2 ε 0 ε lV 2 recuperation times, relieving patient’s suffering and raising
F= — = ε 0ε r [ ]= ∝V 2 . (6)
∂x 2 ∂x δ 2δ safety coefficient of operation. MIS is also called “endoscopic
surgery.” Optical endoscope is one of medical instruments
Let us assume that bias voltage is constant and it is still used in MIS, which is widely used in diagnoses of abdomen,
urinary organs and brain diseases. The viewing scope of
smaller than breakdown voltage, then F ∝ [ L0 ] , which traditional endoscope is limited. In order to widen the visual
means electrostatic force is independent of characteristic field, a set of catheters with different visual angels have to be
dimension L . It can be shown that the electrostatic force is exchanged repeatedly. This method is likely to damage
strong enough to be useful in the micro domain. Electrostatic healthy tissue and increase pain to patient. For overcoming the
micromotor is appropriate for the actuator of MEMS [1]. drawback, putting a micromotor in the front of endoscope to
drive a triple prism seems to be an appropriate alternative.
III. PERFORMANCE COMPARISON OF TWO KINDS This micromotor should have an external diameter of less than
OF MICROMOTORS 1mm . Due to characteristic features of electrostatic
In assessing the performance of micromotor, the power per micromotor as discussed above, it is suitable for this special
unit volume and efficiency are the two most important criteria. application rather than electromagnetic micromotor. The side
Hence, the paper further compares the two kinds of viewing range of the endoscope using micromotor could reach
micromotors from these two aspects. 360 0 [3]-[6]. This endoscope with electrostatic micromotor is
shown in Fig.1.
The absence of windings and ferromagnetic materials
makes electrostatic micromotor light in weight and simple in The driving torque of ordinary electrostatic micromotor is
structure. In addition, the operation of electrostatic so small that it can’t meet the torque requirement for driving

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Figure 1. Tip of endoscope with triple prism driven by electrostatic
micromotor.
triple prism. In our laboratory, a kind of double-stator,
top-drive, variable-capacitance electrostatic micromotor is
now being studied. Some approaches used for improving
motive torque of electromagnetic micromotor are now applied
to the new micromotor. Furthermore, the geometry and
excitation pattern of the micromotor are optimized by genetic
algorithms (GA) to reach an optimum torque performance
with only a marginal increase in overall micromotor
dimensions [7]. The evaluation value of motive torque of the
micromotor is about 2.5µNm , which basically meets the
requirement for endoscope.
V. CONCLUSIONS
The paper compares electrostatic micromotor with
electromagnetic micromotor. According to their different
operation principles, scaling effect of two kinds of driving
forces is analyzed. Electrostatic driving force is independent
of characteristic dimension L whereas electromagnetic
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driving force is proportional to high-order power of L . So, as
the dimensions of micromotors are reduced, electrostatic force
scales advantageously when compared to the magnetic force.
The paper further compares the two types of micromotors
from two aspects: power per unit volume and efficiency. Due
to simple structure, higher power per unit volume and
efficiency, Electrostatic micromotor is suitable for
miniaturization. Therefore, for MEMS, elctrostatic
micromotor appears more attractive and promising than
electromagnetic micromotor. According to those advantages
of electrostatic micromotor, the paper finally discusses its
application to optical endoscope. By putting an electrostatic
micromotor with higher motive torque in the tip of endoscope
could widen visual field of traditional endoscope. With the
performance improving of electrostatic micromotor, its
applications to medical instruments are very promising.
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