Abstract
This paper reports on a novel thermal actuator with sub-micron metallic structures and a buckling arm to operate with low voltages and to generate very large deflections, respectively. A lumped electrothermal model and analysis were also developed to validate the mechanical design and easily predict the temperature distribution along arms of the sub-micron actuator. The actuator was fabricated via the combination of electron beam lithography to form actuator arms with a minimum feature size of 200 nm and lift-off process to deposit a high aspect ratio nickel structure. Reproducible displacements of up to 1.9 μm at the tip were observed up to 250 mV under confocal microscope. The experimentally measured deflection values and theoretically calculated temperature distribution by the developed model were compared with finite element analysis results and they were in good agreement. This study shows a promising approach to develop more sophisticated nano actuators required larger deflections for manipulation of sub-micron scale objects with low-power consumption.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Ahn CH, Allen MG (1993) A fully integrated surface micromachined magnetic microactuator with a multilevel meander magnetic core. J Microelectromech Syst 2:15–22
Bent AA, Hagood NW, Rodgers J (1995) Anisotropic actuation with piezoelectric fiber composites. J Intell Mat Syst Str 6:338–349
Bran O, Lagorce LK, Allen MG (1999) Magnetic microactuators based on polymer magnets. J Microelectromech Syst 8:2–9
Burns DM, Bright VM (1997) Design and performance of a double hot arm polysilicon thermal actuator. Proc SPIE 3224:296–306
Butler JT, Bright VM, Cowan WD (1999) Average power control and positioning of polysilicon thermal actuators. Sensor Actuat A 72:88–97
Comtois JH, Bright VM (1997) Applications for surface-micromachined polysilicon thermal actuators and arrays. Sensor Actuat A 58:19–25
Dhuler VR, Hill E, Cowen A (2001) In-plane MEMS thermal actuator and associated fabrication methods. US Patent Specification US6211598B1
Enikov ET, Lazarov K (2003) PCB-integrated metallic thermal micro-actuators. Sensor Actuat A 105:76–82
Field LA, Burriesci DL, Robrish PR, Rudy RC (1996) Micromachined 12 optical-fiber switch. Sensor Actuat A 53:311–315
Geisberger AA, Sarkar N, Ellis M, Skidmore GD (2003) Electrothermal properties and modeling of polysiliocn microthermal actuator. J Microelectromech Syst 12:513–523
Guckel H, Klein J, Christen T, Skrobis K, Landon M, Lovell E G (1992) Thermo-magnetic metal flexure actuators. In: Tech. Digest 5th IEEE Solid State Sensor and Actuator Workshop. South Carolina, pp 73–75
Huang Q-A, Lee NKS (1999) Analysis and design of polysilicon thermal flexure actuator. J Micromech Microeng 9:64–70
Lerch Ph, Slimane CK, Romanowicz B, Renaud Ph (1996) Modelizatioin and characterization of asymmetrical thermal micro-actuators. J Micromech Microeng 6:134–137
Lin L, Chiao M (1996) Electrothermal responses of lineshape microstructures. Sensor Actuat A 55:35–41
Nguyen TCH, Tang WC, Howe RT (1989) Laterally driven polysilicon resonant microstructures. Sensor Actuat A 20:25–32
Noworolski JM, Klaassen EH, Logan JR, Peterson K, Maluf NI (1996) Process for in-plane and out-of-plane single-crystal-silicon thermal microactuators. Sensor Actuat A 55:65–69
Pan CS, Hsu W (1997) An electro-thermally and laterally driven polysilicon microactuator. J Micromech Microeng 7:7–13
Parameswaran M, Ristic L J, Chau K, Robinson A M, Allegretto W (1990) CMOS electrothermal microactuators. In: Micro Electro Mechanical System, MEMS’90 3rd Annual International Workshop (Piscataway, NJ: IEEE). California, pp 128–131
Peterson KE (1979) Micromachined membrane switches on silicon. IBM J Res Develop 23:376–385
Riethmuller W, Bnecke W (1988) Thermally excited silicon microactuators. IEEE Trans Electron Devices 35:758–763
Shimoyana I, Yasuda T, Miura H (1997) Cmos drivable electrostatic microactuator with large deflection. In: Micro Electro Mechanical System, MEMS’97 10th Annual International Workshop (Piscataway, NJ:IEEE). Nagoya, pp 90–95
Terada Y, Ohkubo K, Mohri T, Suzuki T (1997) Thermal conductivity in nickel solid solutions. J Appl Phys 81:2263–2268
Yan D, Khajepour A, Mansour R (2003) Modeling of two-hot-arm horizontal thermal actuator. J Micromech Microeng 13:312–322
Acknowledgments
This work was partially supported by the KAUST Global Collaborative Research (GCR) grant. H. So sincerely acknowledges Professor Liwei Lin for his valuable discussions and Introduction to MEMS course, where the main idea came from, in fall 2011 at UC Berkeley. The authors would also like to thank Zi Jing Wong for his help with EBL and the Marvell Nanolab at UC Berkeley where all devices were fabricated and characterized.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
So, H., Pisano, A.P. Electrothermal modeling, fabrication and analysis of low-power consumption thermal actuator with buckling arm. Microsyst Technol 21, 195–202 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00542-013-1953-2
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00542-013-1953-2