Electrostatic drive

An electrostatic drive, comprising:

• a pair of objects configured to move relative to one another;
• a plurality of electrodes operatively secured to one of the objects, the electrodes being configured so that application of voltages to the electrodes creates electrostatic forces which effect relative movement of the objects;
• and
• a driver configured to selectively apply a voltage level to each of the electrodes, the voltage level being selected from the group consisting of a HI level, a LO level, and a scalable level from a range including levels between the HI and LO level, where
• the HI level or the LO level is applied to at least one of the electrodes;
• and
• the scalable level is applied to at least one of the other electrodes, where the driver is configured so that varying the scalable level between the HI and LO levels proportionally adjusts the relative movement occurring between the objects.

An electrostatically-driven computer storage device, comprising:

• a storage medium and a plurality of storage medium electrodes operatively affixed thereto;
• an access device movably coupled with the storage medium, the access device being configured to access storage locations on the storage medium;
• a plurality of access device electrodes that are fixed relative to the access device, the storage medium and access device being movable relative to one another via electrostatic force generated between the storage medium electrodes and the access device electrodes;
• and
• a driver configured to drive the access device electrodes into any of a plurality of sequential voltage states, each voltage state being defined by a combination of LO and HI voltage levels existing at the access device electrodes, where transition from one voltage state to a sequentially adjacent voltage state produces a step size of relative movement between the storage medium and the access device,
• where, for each of the voltage states, the driver is further configured to selectively vary voltage applied at one of the access device electrodes to an amount between the LO and the HI voltage levels, in order to produce a proportionally smaller step size and thereby increase resolution of the relative movement occurring between the storage medium and access device.