A New Technique for Contact Mechanics and Friction in Microstructures: Controllable Electrostatic Repulsive Forces From Capacitive Coupling to Electret

The use of the electrostatically repulsive force from the capacitive coupling with electret polymer film is demonstrated experimentally. The repulsive forces can be utilized in controlling contact mechanics and friction in microstructures, and serve as an alternative MEMS actuation mechanism to overcome the limitations by the attractive forces. Simple parallel cantilever beams patterns are used to illustrate the magnitude of the repulsive forces and the associated static charge density from the electret polymer films coupling.