Bidirectional Electrothermal Actuator With Z-Shaped Beams

Author

Zhu, Yong ; Moheimani, S. O Reza ; Yuce, Mehmet Rasit

Author_Institution

Sch. of Eng., Griffith Univ., Gold Coast, QLD, Australia

Volume

12

Issue

7

fYear

2012

fDate

7/1/2012 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

2508

Lastpage

2509

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 μm to +12.8 μm. Experimentally obtained frequency response of the actuator indicates that it has a bandwidth of 49 Hz.

Keywords

electric actuators; frequency response; microactuators; MetalMUMP process; V-shaped actuators; Z-shaped beams; Z-shaped electrothermal actuator; bandwidth 49 MHz; bidirectional electrothermal actuator; bidirectional microactuator; current -13 mA to 13 mA; electrothermal force; frequency response; magnetic field; Actuators; Bandwidth; Bidirectional control; Dynamic range; Educational institutions; Finite element methods; Heating; Bidirectional motion; electrothermal actuator; microsystem design;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Sensors Journal, IEEE

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

1530-437X

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/JSEN.2012.2194141

Filename

6179966