A Novel Electro-Thermal Microactuator ; Design and Simulation

Microactuators have an extensive application for positioning the microparts in microelectromechanical systems (MEMS). In recent years, there have been many studies performed on different sorts of microactuators. Different systems have been invented for the actuation of microactuators each of which have some advantages and disadvantages and have different applications in different areas. Electro-thermal actuation systems are used more extensively because of having more displacement and also larger gripping force with less necessary voltage in comparison with other microactuator actuation methods. In this paper, a novel microactuator is introduced which is a hybridization of U-shaped and V-shaped actuators. This micro-actuator is designed and its performance is verified using coupled thermal –electrical-displacement analysis

Keywords:

Electro-thermal , Microactuator , U-shape actuator , V-shape actuator