Compliant electro-thermal microactuators
- 1 January 1999
- conference paper
- Published by Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)
Abstract
This paper describes design, microfabrication and characterisation of topology optimised compliant electro-thermal microactuators. The actuators are fabricated by a fast prototyping process using laser micromachining and electroplating. Actuators are characterised with respect to displacement, force and work, by use of image analysis. Four different actuators are presented. These actuators are capable of displacements of 30 /spl mu/m and forces of 15 mN. The most recent actuator designs function in reasonable accordance with design predictions.Keywords
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