Design and fabrication of a high-aspect-ratio parylene-based comb-drive actuator for large displacements at a low driving force

Abstract

This paper presents a comb-drive actuator integrated with parylene-based flexible beams for large displacements at a low driving force. Single-crystal silicon and polysilicon are the traditional materials used for comb-drive actuators in the microeletromechanical systems industry. However, the larger Young's modulus limits the displacement at a low applied voltage. This study uses the parylene beams with the characteristic of a low modulus of the elastic comb-drive actuator as a compliant suspension to create a larger displacement (>50 µm) with smaller driving forces than that of silicon. High-aspect-ratio parylene beams can be fabricated through the deposition and removal of parylene in multiple stages on a silicon micro-trench. The proposed process uses a silicon-on-insulator wafer as the substrate to fabricate suspended silicon and parylene beams as rigid and compliant structures, respectively. The test devices of parylene- and silicon-based comb-drive actuators were fabricated with 100 pairs of comb fingers with gaps of 5 µm, and compliant beams of 15 µm in width, 2000 µm in span and 50 µm in thickness. When a driving voltage of 40 V dc was applied, the parylene-based comb-drive actuator generated a displacement of up to 55 µm, whereas the silicon-based comb-drive actuator generated a displacement of 2 µm. The parylene-based comb-drive actuator can generate about 27 times of displacement than that of silicon. This design is suitable for application in devices with large in-plane displacement and low switching speed.