A Novel MUMPs-compatible single-layer out-of-plane electrothermal actuator

Weider Tang; Mingching Wu; Yi-Ping Ho; Mau-Shium Yeh; Weileun Fang

doi:10.1117/12.469088

14 November 2002 A Novel MUMPs-compatible single-layer out-of-plane electrothermal actuator

Weider Tang, Mingching Wu, Yi-Ping Ho, Mau-Shium Yeh, Weileun Fang

Proceedings Volume 4935, Smart Structures, Devices, and Systems; (2002) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.469088
Event: SPIE's International Symposium on Smart Materials, Nano-, and Micro- Smart Systems, 2002, Melbourne, Australia

Abstract

Microactuator is one of the key components for the microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), and it can be categorized as out-of-plane and in-plane according to the motion types. Most of the existing out-of-plane thermal actuators are multi-layer structures. In this paper, a novel electrothermal single-layer out-of-plane actuator is provided and it characteristics and advantages of this device are stated as follows: (1) This actuator is consisted of only a single thin film material, therefore, it can prevent from delaminating after a long-term operation. Besides, owing to its symmetric geometric design, the inner-beams of this structure don’t have any current passed through them and the inner-beams also provide a geometric constraint to allow the two free ends of the structure to bend upwards symmetrically. (2) This device can be operated at a relative low voltage (<5 volt), and deflected upwards about 4 μm in the experiment test. Besides, the fabrication process is very simple and it is MUMPs(Multi-User MEMS Processes)-compatible. Presently, a prototype structure has been successfully fabricated and tested. This structure offers the potential applications in the adaptive optics systems, and Fabry-Perot filters, etc. Besides, it also provides an interface to cooperate with integrated circuits (IC) and various optical elements to construct an embedded-control optical system.

Citation Download Citation

Weider Tang, Mingching Wu, Yi-Ping Ho, Mau-Shium Yeh, and Weileun Fang "A Novel MUMPs-compatible single-layer out-of-plane electrothermal actuator", Proc. SPIE 4935, Smart Structures, Devices, and Systems, (14 November 2002); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.469088

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