Patent ID: 7928631

Claim:
An apparatus, comprising: an electro-mechanical actuator comprising: a comb drive having a first capacitor plate and a second capacitor plate, the capacitor plates having teeth capable of inter-digitating, the comb drive having a mechanical stability threshold; and a deformable connector configured to apply a mechanical restoring force to the first capacitor plate; and wherein the deformable connector is configured to restore the first capacitor plate to be at an equilibrium rest position in response to no control voltage being applied across the comb drive, the comb drive being more engaged when the first capacitor plate is at the equilibrium rest position than when the first capacitor plate is at the mechanical stability threshold of the comb drive, the first and second capacitor plates being disengaged such that the teeth thereof are separated by a gap along a movement direction of the first capacitor plate when the first capacitor plate is at the equilibrium rest position, the first capacitor plate being at the mechanical stability threshold when positioned at the one of the intercepts of the tangent lines to the positive slope part of the capacitance slope function for which the comb drive is most engaged.