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ADC, DAC, MEMS, Electrostatic, Electromagnetic

MEMS Analog -to-digital and digital-to- analog converters are proposed using electrostatic field and electromagnetic fields actuators. For the former, parallel deformable plates supported by springs are used with bias applied voltage which determines the amount of static displacement needed for equilibrium condition. For the latter, coil winding(s) are embedded in a rotating plate, which is exposed to a constant field of a permanent magnet, causing the plate to deflect according to the currents in the windings. In the analog-to-digital arrangement, different spring displacements are tapped off either the spring in case of electrostatic or the moving plate in case of electromagnetic actuators, corresponding to the binary decoded currents. At these off tapping points, logic high signal levels are applied at these locations so that when a certain analog voltage is applied on the moving plate of the capacitor, the spring is displaced to one of these locations, enabling different binary voltages to all switches up to that level. Similar result occurs when an analog voltage is applied on the winding. The digital binary voltages are fed to a priority encoder to obtain the digital value. In digital-to-analog arrangement, the input binary voltage is decoded to different spring locations which correspond to resistances making up a potentiometer circuit for the output analog voltage. Similarly; for the electromagnetic actuator, a number of different length coil windings are embedded within the moving plate, causing different deflections corresponding to one bit of the binary input.