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Magnetostatic MEMS relays for the miniaturization of brushless DC motor controllers

Wright, John A. and Tai, Yu-Chong (1999) Magnetostatic MEMS relays for the miniaturization of brushless DC motor controllers. In: Technical Digest. IEEE International MEMS 99 Conference. Twelfth IEEE International Conference on Micro Electro Mechanical Systems. IEEE , Piscataway, NJ, pp. 594-599. ISBN 0-7803-5194-0. https://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechAUTHORS:20190409-151536647

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Abstract

Magnetostatic MEMS relays which are capable of commutating the field windings of a DC brushless motor are presented. The commutation system based on these relays is less than 10% the mass and volume of the electronics it replaces, it eliminates all but two wires from the wiring harness, it requires no external control and it dissipates less than 1/1000 th the total motor power. Closure forces greater than 5 millinewton are generated in the relays providing four-wire contact resistance readings of less than 35 milliohms. Utilizing gold-to-gold contacts, hot switching of currents greater than 1 amp has been demonstrated. For lifetimes greater than 10 million cycles (greater than 50 hours of continuous motor operation), switched currents should be limited to less than 120 milliamp. At signal levels of less than 1 milliamp, no failure is seen after greater than half a billion cycles. No contact bounce is seen during make or break. Motor commutation in vacuum down to 5 microtorr and from room temperature down to -30° C has been demonstrated.


Item Type:Book Section
Related URLs:
URLURL TypeDescription
https://doi.org/10.1109/MEMSYS.1999.746895DOIArticle
ORCID:
AuthorORCID
Wright, John A.0000-0001-9603-1001
Tai, Yu-Chong0000-0001-8529-106X
Additional Information:© 1999 IEEE. This work is supported by NASA-JPL through JPL task, number RF295. Special thanks to Gerald Lilienthal, Michael R. Johnson and Russell Lawton for their support of this work.
Funders:
Funding AgencyGrant Number
NASA/JPLRF295
DOI:10.1109/MEMSYS.1999.746895
Record Number:CaltechAUTHORS:20190409-151536647
Persistent URL:https://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechAUTHORS:20190409-151536647
Official Citation:J. A. Wright and Yu-Chong Tai, "Magnetostatic MEMS relays for the miniaturization of brushless DC motor controllers," Technical Digest. IEEE International MEMS 99 Conference. Twelfth IEEE International Conference on Micro Electro Mechanical Systems (Cat. No.99CH36291), Orlando, FL, USA, 1999, pp. 594-599. doi: 10.1109/MEMSYS.1999.746895
Usage Policy:No commercial reproduction, distribution, display or performance rights in this work are provided.
ID Code:94604
Collection:CaltechAUTHORS
Deposited By: Tony Diaz
Deposited On:09 Apr 2019 22:56
Last Modified:16 Nov 2021 17:06

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