the actuation is proportional to the square of the applied
voltage. For a well-designed system this will hold true for a
comparatively large range of motion [15]. In contrast, parallel
plate capacitors may benefit from larger capacitances, but have
a very limited range of motion due to snap-down effects. In a
comb capacitor an array of fingers slide past each other in
parallel, keeping the gap size constant. The capacitance and
thereby the applied force scales with the number of combs.
Ultimately, the range of operation is limited by the lateral
instabilities in the comb fingers and spring foundation [16].