The paper presents design, calculation, and simulation of a novel electrostatically actuated microgripper with a self-locking mechanism. The working principle of the electrostatic comb-drive actuator (ECA) is based on the tangential electrostatic force when applying a voltage between two capacitors. The microgripper is driven by lateral comb-drive actuators with a maximum displacement which can be up to 40µm at the calculated voltage of 110.06 volt. Additionally, the self-locking mechanism which consists of two V-beams and ratchet racks at both sides will help the gripping jaws grip, lock and move micro samples without driving voltage. Both analytical calculation and finite element analysis (FEA) were performed to verify the advantages of the proposed design as well as test the maximum stress of the elastic components. Results show that both calculation and simulation displacement are quite close with the average deviation of 0.3%. The maximum error is approximately 1.23% at the driving voltage of 100 volts.
