Critical Analysis of Different Actuation Techniques for a Micro Cantilever

The objective of this work is to carryout critical comparison of different actuation mechanisms like electrostatic, thermal, piezoelectric, and magnetic with reference to a micro cantilever. The relevant parameters like force generated, displacement are compared in actuation methods. With these results, helps in choosing the best actuation method for a particular application. In this study, Comsol/Multiphysics software is used. Modeling and simulation is done by considering the micro cantilever of same dimensions as an actuator using all the above mentioned actuation techniques. In addition to their small size, micro actuators consume very little power and are capable of accurate results. In this work, a comparison of actuation mechanisms is done to decide the efficient system in micro domain.




References:
[1] J. H. Comtois, M. A. Michalicek, C. C. Barron, “characterization of
electrothermal actuators in a four-level,planarized surfacemicromachined
polycrystalline process”, proc. IEEE International
Conference on Solid-State Sensors and Actuators, Chicago, il, pp. 769-
772, jun 1997.
[2] T. Moulton & G.K. Anathasuresh, “Micromechanical devices with
embedded electro-thermal compliant actuation”, Proc. asme winter
annual meeting volume mems-1, pp. 553-560, 1999.
[3] Prime faraday technology watch, “Introduction to mems (microelectromechanical
systems)”, January 2002.
[4] Kovacs, g.t.a., micromachined transducers sourcebook, mcgraw-hill,
New york, NY, 1998.
[5] M. S. Suen, j. C. Hsieh, K. C. Liu, david t. W. Lin, “optimal design of
the electrothermal v-beam microactuator based on ga for stress
concentration analysis”imecs, March 2011.
[6] B. G. Sheeparamatti, Prashant D. Hanasi, Kirankumar B. B, study of
pull-in voltage in mems actuator” 2014 international conference on
smart structures & systems (icsss-2014), Chennai, India.
[7] B.G. Sheeparamatti, Rachita Shettar “modeling and analysis of thermal
bimorph using comsol” proceeding of the 2013 Comsol Conference in
Bangalore.