Bidirectional Electrothermal Actuator with Z-shaped Beams
Abstract
A bidirectional micro-actuator powered by electrothermal force is successfully demonstrated under both dc and ac operations, without the assistance of magnetic field, using MetalMUMPs process. To achieve small stiffness without buckling, which tends to occur in V-shaped actuators, a new Z-shaped electrothermal actuator is designed. With the actuation current from -13 mA to +13 mA, the electrothermal actuator can achieve a bidirectional motion in a dynamic range from -11.6 孊to +12.8 孮 Experimentally obtained frequency response of the actuator indicates that it has a bandwidth of 49 Hz.
Journal Title
IEEE Sensors Journal
Volume
12
Issue
7
Copyright Statement
© 2012 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other uses, in any current or future media, including reprinting/republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works, for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted component of this work in other works.
Subject
Atomic, molecular and optical physics
Mechanical engineering
Microelectromechanical systems (MEMS)