The design and working principle of a miniature reciprocating compressor driven by an electrostatic comb drive is presented and its basic parameters are discussed. The compressor, which is 6 mm in diameter and less than 0.5 mm in thickness, has a simple structure consisting of a compressor chamber, a corrugation diaphragm driven by a vertical comb-drive, and two active micro-valves. Using air as working medium, the simple mechanical system enables a compression ratio of 1.5. With a working voltage of 320V, the device gives flow rates of 2.7 ml/ min. The three-dimensional flow field in the chamber is also simulated using a commercial computational fluid dynamics software.