Details of Grant 

EPSRC Reference:	GR/K75118/01
Title:	FRICTIONLESS ELECTROMAGNETICALLY LEVITATED MICRO-ELECTROMECHANICAL SWITCH/ACTUATOR
Principal Investigator:	Sangster, Professor AJ
Other Investigators:	Dhariwal, Dr R Yang, Professor S
Researcher Co-Investigators:
Project Partners:
Department:	Computing & Electrical Engineering
Organisation:	Heriot-Watt University
Scheme:	Standard Research (Pre-FEC)
Starts:	01 January 1996	Ends:	30 June 1999	Value (£):	164,516
EPSRC Research Topic Classifications:	Electromagnetics
EPSRC Industrial Sector Classifications:
Related Grants:
Panel History:
Summary on Grant Application Form
Millimetre and sub-millimetre scale motors, actuators and switches suffer disproportionately from the effects of friction and useful output can be very difficult to procure. An attractive solution to this problem lies in the application of the fringing fields of a detuned microwave cavity which can provide stable levitation of the moving part. The availability of usable levitation forces in the vicinity of the fringing fields of an aperture located in the gap of a re-entrant TM 011 cavity operating at X-band frequencies has previously been established. The aim of the proposed project will be the demonstration of stable levitation of a micro-component using these re-entrant cavity fields and also the fringing fields of compact dielectric resonators, and hence construct a micro-mechanical switch.
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Organisation Website:	http://www.hw.ac.uk