Microfabrication provides a powerful tool for batch processing and miniaturization of mechanical systems into dimensional domain not accessible easily by conventional machining. CMOS IC process compatible design is definitely a big plus because of tremendous know-how in IC technologies, commercially available standard IC processes for a reasonable price, and future integration of microma-chined mechanical systems and integrated circuits. Magnetically, electrostatically and thermally driven microactuators have been reported previously. These actuators have applications in many fields from optics to robotics and biomedical engineering.
At NJIT cleanroom, mono or multimorph microactuators have been fabricated using CMOS compatible process. In design and fabrication of these microactuators, internal stress due to thermal expansion coefficient mismatch and residual stress have been considered, and the microactuators are driven with electro-thermal power combined with electrostatical excitation. They can provide large force, and in- or out-of-plane actuation. In this work, an analytical model is proposed to describe the thermal actuation of in-plane (inchworm) actuators. Stress gradient throughout the thickness of monomorph layers is modeled as linearly temperature dependent Δσ. The nonlinear behaviour of out-of-plane actuators under electrothermal and electrostatic excitations is investigated. The analytical results are compared with the numerical results based on Finite Element Analysis. ANSYS, a general purpose FEM package, and IntelliCAD, a FEA CAD tool specifically designed for MEMS have been used extensively. The experimental results accompany each analytical and numerical work.
Micromechanical world is three dimensional and 2D world of IC processes sets a limit to it. A new micromachining technology, reshaping, has been introduced to realize 3D structures and actuators. This new 3D fabrication technology makes use of the advantages of IC fabrication technologies and combines them with the third dimension of the mechanical world. Polycrystalline silicon microactuators have been reshaped by Joule heating. The first systematic investigation of reshaping has been presented. A micromirror utilizing two reshaped actuators have been designed, fabricated and characterized
