A Novel MUMPs-compatible single-layer out-of-plane electrothermal actuator

Abstract

Microactuator is one of the key components for the microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), and it can be categorized as out-of-plane and in-plane according to the motion types. Most of the existing out-of-plane thermal actuators are multi-layer structures. In this paper, a novel electrothermal single-layer out-of-plane actuator is provided and it characteristics and advantages of this device are stated as follows: (1) This actuator is consisted of only a single thin film material, therefore, it can prevent from delaminating after a long-term operation. Besides, owing to its symmetric geometric design, the inner-beams of this structure don’t have any current passed through them and the inner-beams also provide a geometric constraint to allow the two free ends of the structure to bend upwards symmetrically. (2) This device can be operated at a relative low voltage (<5 volt), and deflected upwards about 4 μm in the experiment test. Besides, the fabrication process is very simple and it is MUMPs(Multi-User MEMS Processes)-compatible. Presently, a prototype structure has been successfully fabricated and tested. This structure offers the potential applications in the adaptive optics systems, and Fabry-Perot filters, etc. Besides, it also provides an interface to cooperate with integrated circuits (IC) and various optical elements to construct an embedded-control optical system.