Patent ID: 7005952

Claim:
A torque motor, comprising: a base; four polepieces extending away from said base, said polepieces being separated from one another and being arranged at the corners of an imaginary polygon, each polepiece terminating in a pole; a coil surrounding one of said polepieces; an armature pivotally mounted on said base, said armature having a portion arranged to move toward and away from an associated one of said poles to define a variable-reluctance air gap therebetween; a permanent magnet mounted on one of said base and armature and polarized in a direction substantially perpendicular to the pivotal axis of said armature; wherein said magnet is mounted on said base, wherein said base has lateral portions formed of a magnetically-permeable material positioned on opposite sides of said magnet, and wherein said magnet is polarized to oppositely polarize said lateral portions; and wherein at least a portion of said torque motor is formed by a MEMS technique; whereby said coil may be selectively energized to cause said armature to pivot about said axis.