Electrostatic forces in micromanipulations: Review of analytical models and simulations including roughness

Manipulations by contact of objects between 1 μm and 1 mm are often disturbed by adhesion between the manipulated object and the gripper. Electrostatic forces are among the phenomena responsible for this adhesive effect. Analytical models have been developed in the literature to predict the electrostatic forces. Most models are developed within the framework of scanning probe microscopy, i.e. for a contact between a conducting tip and a metallic surface. Models are reviewed in this work and compared with our own simulations using finite elements modeling. The results show a good correlation. The main advantage of our simulations lies in the fact that they can integrate roughness parameters. For this purpose, a fractal representation of the surface topography was chosen through the use of the Weierstrass-Mandelbrot function. Comparisons with experimental benchmarks from the literature show very good correlation between experimental results and simulations. It demonstrates the importance of surface topography on electrostatic forces at very close separation distances.