Patent ID: 7239065

Claim:
An electrostatic actuator, comprising: a stator plate having a stator electrode layer with an electrode layer layout in which the stator electrode layer is separated into p*n regions, for ‘p’ phases and ‘n’ instances of the p phases, where ‘n’ is any even number equal to or greater than 2, the regions being separated from each other by a region gap, wherein each instance includes p regions each of which being connected to a respective one of the p phases and electrically insulated from the other regions by the region gaps; a rotor plate stacked above or below the stator plate and having a rotor electrode layer with an electrode layer layout having p*n rotor regions, with all the rotor regions being electrically tied to a single source of voltage or ground; and an insulating medium between the stator and rotor plates, wherein the insulating medium is formed as circular rings each covering a portion of a respective region and each with a width smaller than the width of each circular ring's respective region.