Two-way membrane-type micro-actuator with continuous deflections

Chenpeng Hsu, Wen-Syang Hsu

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

19 Scopus citations

Abstract

This paper presents design, simulation, fabrication, and testing of a novel two-way micro-membrane actuator able to deflect in both upward and downward directions with continuous deflections. The design concept, to realize two-way continuous movement, is achieved by arranging different bimorph structures at different regions of the actuator with two kinds of boundary conditions. The actuator comprises of a square membrane with four bimorph beams and one central bimorph plate on it. The material (e.g. aluminum) on the top layer of the bimorph beams and plate has a larger thermal expansion coefficient than the material (e.g. silicon dioxide) of the membrane. The driving voltages in the two operating modes are both less than 3.5 V at about 350 mW maximum power consumption for an 1 mm2 membrane actuator. The upward and downward deflections achieved up to 50 and 15 μm with maximum simulated temperatures less than 420 and 150 °C, respectively. A finite-element model is build to simulate the thermal mechanical behaviors that are compared with the experimental results. The design parameters influencing the deflections of the actuator are also discussed.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)387-394
Number of pages8
JournalJournal of Micromechanics and Microengineering
Volume10
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - 1 Sep 2000

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