Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: Flexible actuators capable of bending, twisting, and stretching have garnered significant interest for applications in wearable and mobile devices. In this study, we present the development of flexible linear stepping motors (FLSMs) with moving sliders fabricated from flexible printed circuit boards as thin as 0.1 mm. The force output of these motors can be enhanced by stacking multiple sliders, and their operational stroke length is theoretically unlimited. Experimental results demonstrate a maximum speed of 500 mm/s, a step size of 25 µm, and a force constant of 743 mN/A. Notably, the proposed device achieves the highest volumetric force constant of 5.94 mN/A(mm) 3 reported in the literature. The flexibility and compact design of these FLSMs make them particularly suitable for space-constrained applications, such as actuators in robotic fingers and pupillary distance adjusters in virtual reality headsets.
Source: Scientific Reports
Institutions: National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University, ASML (Netherlands)
Language: English
Subfield: Biomedical Engineering
Field: Engineering
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $2,690
OpenAlex ID: W4409559158