This work addresses a range of issues on modeling electrothermal microactuators, including the physics of temperature dependent material properties and Finite Element Analysis modeling techniques. Electrical and thermal conductivity are a nonlinear function of temperature that can be explained with electron and phonon transport models, respectively. Parametric forms of these equations are developed for polysilicon and a technique to extract these parameters from experimental data is given. A modeling technique to capture the convective and conductive cooling effects on a thermal actuator in air is then presented. Using this modeling technique and the established polysilicon material properties, simulation results are compared with measured actuator responses. Both static and transient analyzes have been performed on two styles of actuators and the results compare well with measured data.[946]Index Terms-Electrothermal microactuator, modeling thermal actuator, polysilicon material properties.
A micromachined end-effector along with techniques in micromanipulation for directed micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) assembly is presented. A passive end-effector, fabricated in a 50 µm thick single crystal silicon (SCS) deep reactive ion etched (DRIE) process, is compared with a microgripper made with the same process. With this passive tool, pick and place assembly of MEMS components can be accomplished reliably, since the end-effector is more mechanically robust than comparable microgrippers. This end-effector can withstand an order of magnitude more force than conventional MEMS based microgrippers used for microassembly. In addition, the elimination of any actuation reduces packaging complexity and allows easier integration of sensing mechanisms for feedback control. This simplified passive end-effector with an integrated electrical contact sensor is also presented, along with assembly techniques and designs used for directed pick and place MEMS assembly. Both mechanical and electrical MEMS interconnects are demonstrated.
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