Patent ID: 7412358

Claim:
A method of designing and fabricating an electromechanical actuator, comprising the steps of: (a) modeling the actuator as an elastic element having a plurality of geometric degrees of freedom; and (b) for each of a plurality of deformations of said elastic element: (i) specifying said each deformation by postulating a fixed displacement of one of said degrees of freedom, (ii) calculating corresponding displacements of all other said degrees of freedom, and (iii) calculating an applied voltage that corresponds to said displacements; a largest said applied voltage then being a pull-in voltage of the actuator, and said deformation that corresponds to said largest applied voltage then being a pull-in deformation of the actuator; (c) modifying said elastic element until at least one of said pull-in voltage and said pull-in deformation is in accordance with design criteria of the electromechanical actuator; and (d) fabricating the electromechanical actuator in accordance with said modified elastic element.