Optimized design for an electrothermal microactuator

Ioan Călimănescu; Liviu-Constantin Stan; Viorica Popa

doi:10.1117/12.2069988

20 February 2015 Optimized design for an electrothermal microactuator

Ioan Călimănescu, Liviu-Constantin Stan, Viorica Popa

Proceedings Volume 9258, Advanced Topics in Optoelectronics, Microelectronics, and Nanotechnologies VII; 92582F (2015) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2069988
Event: Advanced Topics in Optoelectronics, Microelectronics, and Nanotechnologies 2014, 2014, Constanta, Romania

Abstract

In micromechanical structures, electrothermal actuators are known to be capable of providing larger force and reasonable tip deflection compared to electrostatic ones. Many studies have been devoted to the analysis of the flexure actuators. One of the most popular electrothermal actuators is called ‘U-shaped’ actuator. The device is composed of two suspended beams with variable cross sections joined at the free end, which constrains the tip to move in an arcing motion while current is passed through the actuator. The goal of this research is to determine via FEA the best fitted geometry of the microactuator (optimization input parameters) in order to render some of the of the output parameters such as thermal strain or total deformations to their maximum values. The software to generate the CAD geometry was SolidWorks 2010 and all the FEA analysis was conducted with Ansys 13 TM. The optimized model has smaller geometric values of the input parameters that is a more compact geometry; The maximum temperature reached a smaller value for the optimized model; The calculated heat flux is with 13% bigger for the optimized model; the same for Joule Heat (26%), Total deformation (1.2%) and Thermal Strain (8%). By simple optimizing the design the dimensions and the performance of the micro actuator resulted more compact and more efficient.

Citation Download Citation

Ioan Călimănescu, Liviu-Constantin Stan, and Viorica Popa "Optimized design for an electrothermal microactuator", Proc. SPIE 9258, Advanced Topics in Optoelectronics, Microelectronics, and Nanotechnologies VII, 92582F (20 February 2015); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2069988

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