High-voltage smart power integrated circuits to drive piezoceramic actuators for microrobotic applications

The development of microrobots is very important in fields where sub-micrometre precision is required. An integrated driving solution based on a commercial BCD (bipolar, CMOS, DMOS) technology is proposed to implement proper drivers for microrobots formed by smart piezoactuator units (SPU). The high voltage signals that demand these actuators are performed by a driver based on a full custom design of a high voltage operational amplifier connected in the inverter configuration. They are able to supply a 50 V sinusoidal waveform at frequencies ranging about 10 kHz with the distortion levels appropriate to the application.