Improvement procedure of temperature field for electrothermal microgripper with parallel beam

Abstract

This paper mainly studies the high-temperature problem of the electrothermal microgripper with a parallel beam (EMPB). Firstly, a temperature model based on the structure analysis was built. Then, a series of optimal designs of temperature field was conducted, which includes the S beam and the cooling beam at the bottom of the heated cantilever. Finally, the experimental sample of the gripper was made, and the temperature field was directly characterized by the microscopic thermal imaging equipment. The feasibility of the temperature optimization was verified by the microsphere gripper experiment. The result shows that the optimization scheme can reduce the temperature of the tip finger by 50–200 ℃, the substrate temperature by 30–80 ℃, and increase the tension of the gripper by 30~100%, which makes a better temperature field distribution of the electrothermal microgripper. The proposed optimization scheme could apply to the temperature control of the electrothermal micro-actuator of other materials or mechanisms.