| dc.description.abstract | Micro-thermal actuators deform the structure by heating the material. According to the direction of deformation, the directions of micro-thermal actuators’ actuation can be divided into two parts, in-plane and out-of-plane. Due to the limitations of structure and manufacturing process, microactuators with two degrees of freedom in deformation are rarely used at the same time. Therefore, we use V-shaped as the main structure of the component, designing a two-dimensional movement trajectory micro-thermal actuator that can produce in-plane displacement at low temperature and out-of-plane displacement at high temperature.
We use heat as a single driving force. Through numerical simulation, the trends of the deformation in each direction after changing the geometric size of the V-shaped structural beam are observed, and compare the difference from the Z-shaped structural beam. Due to the simulation results, the dominating direction of deformation from the parameters of aspect ratio and angle are summarized, and the equivalent relationship between the angles of the two types of structural beams is analyzed. After comparing in all aspects, the large aspect ratio and angle are selected as the basis of the structural graphic design; besides, the aluminum film with a better thermal conductivity is used as the main material of the structure. Meanwhile, the arrangement of the two structural beams is adjusted to overcome the difference of the coupling beam in the out-of-plane direction at large angles.
The experimental results show that the V-shaped structural beams, which have the maximum horizontal displacement of 16.8 μm and the maximum vertical displacement of 57.2 μm at 160°C, can be obtain. After adjusting the geometry, the difference of the coupling beam in the out-of-plane direction is reduced from 6 μm to 2 μm. However, the Z-shaped structural beam can obtain the maximum displacement of 8.5 μm and 72.3 μm in the in-plane and out-of-plane respectively. By adjusting the arrangement mode, the difference of the coupling beam in the out-of-plane direction is reduced from 8 μm to 3 μm. | en_US |