【正文】
echanism is so plicated that relatively few attempts have been made to miniaturize the gear systems [23]. Suzumori et al. [2] used the mechanical paradox planetary gear mechanism to drive a robot for 1in pipes forward or backward. They employed a single motor to drive the gear mechanisms with high reduction ratio. Precise gear fabrication was enabled by micro wire electrical discharge machining (microEDM). These parts, however, should be assembled before the drive motor is attached to the gearbox. Takeuchi et. al. [3] also used microEDM to fabricate the micro planetary gears. They suggested special cermets or High Carbon Steel for possible materials. While the design can achieve a reduction ratio of 200, the gears should also be assembled and motor enable the driving of the planetary gear by onchip means, Sandia Ultra planar Multilevel MEMS Technology (SUMMiTV) process [4] for planetary gear fabrication is adopted in this study. The SUMMiTV process is the only foundry process available which utilizes four layers of releasable polysilicon, for a total of five layers (including a ground plane) [5]. Due to this fact, it is frequently used in plicated gear mechanisms being driven by onchip electrostatic actuators [5].However, in many cases, the microengines may not produce enough torque to drive the desired mechanical load, since their electrostatic b drives typically only generate a few tens of micronewtons of force. Fortunately, these engines can easily be driven at tens of thousands of revolutions per minutes. This makes it very feasible to trade speed for torque [7].Rodgers et al. [7] proposed two dual level gears with an overall gear reduction ratio of 12:1. Thus six of these modular transmission assemblies can have a 2,985,984:1 reduction ratio at the cost of the huge space.With the desire for size pactness and at the same time, high reduction ratios, the planetary gear system is presented in this paper. It will be the first planetary gear mechanism using surface micromachining,to the authors knowledge. The principles of operations of the planetary gear mechanism, fabrication, and the expected performance of the planetary gear systems are described in this paper.Principles of operation An alternative way of using gears to transmit torque is to make one or more gears, ., planetary gears, rotate outside of one gear, . sun gear. Most planetary reduction gears, at conventional size, are used as wellknown pact mechanical power transmission systems [1]. The schematic of the planetary gear system employed is shown in FigureSince SUMMiT V designs are laid out using AutoCAD 2000, the Figure 1 is generated automatically from the lay out masks (Appendix [1]). One unit of the planetary gear system is posed of six gears: one sun gear, a, three planetary gears, b, one fixed ring gear, c, one rotating ring gear, d, and one output gear. The number of teeth for each gear is different from one another except among the planetary gears. An input gear is the sun gear, a, driven by the arm connected to the microengine. The rotating ring gear, d, is served as an output gear. For example, if the arm drives the sun gear in the clockwise direction, the planetary gears, b, will rotate countercloc