Patent ID: 11923790
Assignee: MIKIO WAKI
Field: Electrical machinery, apparatus, energy (Electrical engineering)
Classification: CPC B  H | IPC H

Claim 7:
8. A method for driving a dielectric elastomer, comprising:
applying voltage to a dielectric elastomer drive unit including a dielectric elastomer layer and a pair of electrode layers flanking the dielectric elastomer layer;
stopping application of voltage to the dielectric elastomer drive unit; and
removing, with use of a charge removal unit configured with a capacitor having a capacitance larger than that of the dielectric elastomer driving unit and connected in parallel to the pair of electrode layers, a charge stored in the dielectric elastomer drive unit; wherein
the charge removal unit functions as a step-down circuit that lowers voltage for charging a power storage unit with respect to voltage of the charge removal unit of when the charge is stored from the dielectric elastomer drive unit;
the capacitor in the charge removal unit has the capacitance that is selected such that the voltage applied to the power storage unit has a desired value; and
the process of storing the charge from the charge removal unit to the power storage unit and an operation of elongating the dielectric elastomer drive unit are performed in parallel.