Electromechanical drives adapted to provide two degrees of mobility

• US 20050237597A1
• Filed: 04/27/2004
• Published: 10/27/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 04/27/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Original Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Inventors: De Rooij, Nicolaas-F, Epitaux, Marc, Petremand, Yves, Noell, Wilfried
• Granted Patent: US 7,187,486 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 359/290
• CPC Class Codes: H02K 2201/18 Machines moving with multiple degrees of freedom
• CPC Class Codes: H02N 1/008 Laterally driven motors, e.g. of the comb-drive type

Abstract

An electromechanical system having an object and drives adapted to cooperate to provide the object with two degrees of mobility is described herein.

Claims

1. An electromechanical system comprising:

a first compliant suspension beam;

an object coupled to the first compliant suspension beam; and

a first and a second drive coupled to a first and a second end of the first compliant suspension beam, and adapted to be activatable complementarily to move, compress or extend the first compliant suspension beam, to provide the object with a first and a second degree of mobility.

2. The electromechanical system of claim 1, wherein the first and second drives are adapted to be complementarily activatable to move the first compliant suspension beam a distance along a first direction, to move the object a distance along the first direction.

3. The electromechanical system of claim 2, wherein the first and second drives are further adapted to be complementarily activatable to also compress or extend the first compliant suspension beam by an amount, to move the object for a distance along a second direction, orthogonal to the first direction, substantially concurrent with said movement of the object along the first direction.

4. The electromechanical system of claim 1, wherein

the electromechanical system further comprises a second compliant suspension beam;

the object is further coupled to the second compliant suspension beam; and

the first and second drives are further coupled to a third and a fourth end of the second compliant suspension beam, and adapted to be activatable complementarily to correspondingly move, compress or extend the second compliant suspension beam, in concert with the moving, compressing, or extending of the first compliant suspension beam.

5. The electromechanical system of claim 1, wherein the electromechanical system further comprises a third drive coupled to the first end of the first compliant suspension beam, and adapted to be activatable complementarily with the second drive to move, compress or extend the first compliant suspension beam to complement the complementary activating of the first and second drives.

6. The electromechanical system of claim 1, wherein

the first and second drives contribute to the provision of the first and second degrees of mobility in a first one or more complementarily activation manners;

and

the electromechanical system further comprises a third and a fourth drive coupled to the first and second ends of the first compliant suspension beam, and adapted to be activatable complementarily with each other, to move, compress or extend the first compliant suspension beam, to contribute to the provision of the first and second degrees of mobility in a second one or more complementarily activation manners.

7. The electromechanical system of claim 1, wherein at least one of the first and second drives comprises two separately disposed disjoint sections.

8. The electromechanical system of claim 1, wherein the electromechanical system further comprises a stage attached to first compliant suspension beam, and the object is disposed on the stage.

9. The electromechanical system of claim 8, wherein the electromechanical system further comprises

a substrate;

first and second springs disposed on the substrate, and coupled to the first and second drives respectively; and

the substrate further includes one or more regions adapted to be activatable to attract and hold the stage, to render the object unmovable by the first and second drives.

10. The electromechanical system of claim 8, wherein the electromechanical system further comprises one or more features adapted to be activatable to attract and hold the stage, rendering the object unmovable by the first and second drives.

11. An electromechanical system comprising:

a first, a second, a third, and a fourth movable arm;

an object coupled to the first, second, third and fourth movable arms; and

a first, a second, a third, and a fourth drive correspondingly coupled to the first, second, third and fourth moveable arms, respectively, adapted to be complementarily activatable to move the first, second, third and fourth movable arms in a coordinated manner to provide the object with a first and a second degree of mobility.

12. The electromechanical system of claim 11, wherein the first and second drives are adapted to be activatable complementarily to move in a selected one of a counterclockwise direction and a clockwise direction, and the third and fourth drives are adapted to be activatable complementarily to move in the other one of the counterclockwise and clockwise directions, to move the object a distance, along a first direction.

13. The electromechanical system of claim 12, wherein the first, second, third and fourth drives are further adapted to be activatable complementarily to move the object for a distance, along a second direction, orthogonal to the first direction, substantially concurrent with said movement of the object along the first direction.

14. The electromechanical system of claim 11, wherein the first, second, third and fourth drives are further adapted to be activatable complementarily to move in a selected one of a counterclockwise direction and a clockwise direction, to move the object a distance, along a first direction.

15. The electromechanical system of claim 14, wherein the first, second, third and fourth drives are further adapted to be activatable complementarily to move the object a distance, along a second direction, orthogonal to the first direction, substantially concurrent with said movement of the object along the first direction.

16. The electromechanical system of claim 11, wherein the electromechanical system further comprises a stage coupled to the movable arms, and the object is disposed on the stage.

17. The electromechanical system of claim 16, wherein the electromechanical system further comprises a substrate having one or more regions adapted to be activatable to attract and hold the stage, to render the object unmovable by the drives.

18. The electromechanical system of claim 16, wherein the electromechanical system further comprises one or more features adapted to be activatable to attract and hold the stage, rendering the object unmovable by the drives.

19. A method comprising:

activating a first drive; and

activating a second drive in a manner complementary to said activating of the first drive to move, compress or extend a first substantially elongated member to provide an object with a first and a second degree of mobility, the first and second drives being different drives.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein

said complementary activating of the first and second drives is performed to provide primarily a selected one of the first and second degree of mobility;

and

the method further comprises activating complementarily a third and a fourth drive, in cooperation with said complementary activating of the first and second drives to move, compress or extend the first substantially elongated member to provide the object primarily with the other one of the first and second degrees of mobility, the first, second, third, and four drives being different drives.

21. The method of claim 19, wherein

said complementary activating of the first and second drives is performed to move the first substantially elongated member to provide a selected one of the first and second degree of mobility;

and

the method further comprises activating complementarily a third and a fourth drive, in cooperation with said complementary activating of the first and second drives to move a second substantially elongated member, in concert with said moving of the first substantially elongated member, the first, second, third, and four drives being different drives.

22. The method of claim 19, wherein the method further comprises rendering a stage to which the object is disposed, unmovable by the drives, to effectuating locking in place the object.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein the method further comprises undoing said rendering of the stage unmovable to render the object movable by the drives again.

24. The method of claim 23, wherein the method further comprises repeating said moving of the object, and effectuating locking in-place the object.

25. A system comprising:

a data routing subsystem including memory having a plurality of data routing rules, and a processor coupled to the memory to route data based at least in part on the data routing rules; and

a network interface module coupled to the data routing subsystem to optically forward data for the data routing subsystem, the network interface module including an electromechanical subsystem having

a plurality of substantially elongated members;

an object coupled to the plurality of substantially elongated members; and

a plurality of drives coupled to the substantially elongated members, and adapted to be selectively activatable in selected combinations to move, compress or extend the substantially elongated members, to provide the object with a first and a second degree of mobility.

26. The system of claim 25, wherein

the plurality of substantially elongated members of the electromechanical system comprise a first and a second compliant suspension beam;

and

the plurality of drives of the electromechanical system comprise a first and a second drive coupled to first ends of the first and second compliant suspension beams, and a third and a fourth drive coupled to second ends of the first and second compliant suspension beams.

27. The system of claim 25, wherein

the plurality of elongated members of the electromechanical system comprises a first, a second, a third, and a fourth movable arm;

and

the plurality of drives of the electromechanical system comprise a first, a second, a third, and a fourth drive correspondingly coupled to the first, second, third and fourth moveable arms, respectively.

28. The system of claim 25, wherein each of the drives is adapted to be activatable with an intensity that is different from activation intensities of the other drives.

29. The system of claim 25, wherein the electromechanical system further comprises

a stage to which the object is attached;

and

a substrate having either a region or a feature disposed on the substrate activatable to attract and hold the stage, to render the object immoveable by the drives.

30. The system of claim 29, wherein the system further comprises one or more sensors to monitor one or more aspects of the system, which monitoring results are used exclusively or in combination with other inputs in determining said selective complementary activation of the drives of the electromechanical system.