TY - GEN
T1 - Large in-plane displacement microactuators based on electro-thermal bimorphs with folded multiple segments
AU - Pal, S.
AU - Samuelson, S. R.
AU - Zhang, X.
AU - Xie, H.
PY - 2013
Y1 - 2013
N2 - A mechanism for achieving large in-plane displacement is proposed, fabricated and tested. A key distinguishing feature of this mechanism is that it employs bimorph actuator beams, which have traditionally been used for achieving out-of-plane displacements only. A combination of rigid beams and bimorphs amplifies in-plane displacements and minimizes out-of-plane displacements produced by the bimorphs. A test structure with thermal bimorphs and an embedded resistive heater is fabricated; a maximum displacement of 135 μm is measured at just 3.8 V dc. The mechanism may also be implemented using bimorphs and multimorphs based on piezoelectric effect, electroactive polymers, shape memory alloys, magnetostriction, and electrostriction. Possible applications include movable MEMS stages, integrated Michelson interferometers, temperature sensors, and movable microneedles.
AB - A mechanism for achieving large in-plane displacement is proposed, fabricated and tested. A key distinguishing feature of this mechanism is that it employs bimorph actuator beams, which have traditionally been used for achieving out-of-plane displacements only. A combination of rigid beams and bimorphs amplifies in-plane displacements and minimizes out-of-plane displacements produced by the bimorphs. A test structure with thermal bimorphs and an embedded resistive heater is fabricated; a maximum displacement of 135 μm is measured at just 3.8 V dc. The mechanism may also be implemented using bimorphs and multimorphs based on piezoelectric effect, electroactive polymers, shape memory alloys, magnetostriction, and electrostriction. Possible applications include movable MEMS stages, integrated Michelson interferometers, temperature sensors, and movable microneedles.
KW - Multimorph
KW - bimorph
KW - in-plane
KW - large displacement
KW - thermal actuators
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84891702366&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1109/Transducers.2013.6627086
DO - 10.1109/Transducers.2013.6627086
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:84891702366
SN - 9781467359818
T3 - 2013 Transducers and Eurosensors XXVII: The 17th International Conference on Solid-State Sensors, Actuators and Microsystems, TRANSDUCERS and EUROSENSORS 2013
SP - 1587
EP - 1590
BT - 2013 Transducers and Eurosensors XXVII
T2 - 2013 17th International Conference on Solid-State Sensors, Actuators and Microsystems, TRANSDUCERS and EUROSENSORS 2013
Y2 - 16 June 2013 through 20 June 2013
ER -