A High-Voltage Generator and Multiplexer for Electrostatic Actuation in Programmable Matter
Yimai Peng, Gordy Carichner, Yejoong Kim, Li-Yu Chen, Rémy Tribhout, Benoît Piranda, Julien Bourgeois, David Blaauw, Dennis Sylvester
Abstract
Programmable matter (PM) consists of tiny, mm-scale quasi-spherical robots that can be combined and programmed to form any arbitrary 3-D shape autonomously. While PM enables instant structural visualization and opens up a host of industrial and artistic applications, it also raises significant challenges in micro-robot control, communication, and actuation that are difficult to support with existing system-on-chip (SoC) designs. This article presents a high-voltage-generation-and-multiplexer (HVGM) chip specially designed for electrostatic actuation of micro-robots for applications such as PM. The HVGM individually controls 12 pairs of <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$+/-$ </tex-math></inline-formula> electrodes using a positive and negative charge pump and mux-structure, consuming only 286 nW power when switching a 10 pF electrode at 155 V/s, and producing a differential voltage of 103 V (29 <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\times $ </tex-math></inline-formula> voltage gain from 3.6 V) in measurement. We also show a complete micro-system of stacked dies, measuring 3 <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\times $ </tex-math></inline-formula> 1.4 <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\times $ </tex-math></inline-formula> 1.1 mm, including the HVGM, a processor, radio, and harvester that achieves energy-autonomous operation, and can be integrated into a micro-robot “Catom” via a flexible PCB.