During the last fifteen years, miniaturised paraffin actuation has evolved through the need of a simple actuation principle, still able to deliver large strokes and high actuation forces at small scales. This is achieved by the large and rather incompressible volume expansion associated with the solid-to-liquid phase transition of paraffin. The common approach has been to encapsulate the paraffin by a stiff surrounding that directs the volume expansion towards a flexible membrane, which deflects in a directed stroke. However, a number of alternative methods have also been used in the literature. The most common applications to this date have been switches, positioning actuators, and microfluidic valves and pumps. This review will treat the historical background, as well as the fundamentals in paraffin actuation, including material properties of paraffin. Besides reviewing the three major groups of paraffin actuator applications; actuators, valves, and pumps, the modelling done on paraffin actuation will be explored. Furthermore, a section focusing on fabrication of paraffin microactuators is also included. The review ends with conclusions and outlook of the field, identifying unexplored potential of paraffin actuation.The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx
Thermomechanical properties and performance of ceramic resonators for wireless pressure reading in high temperatures. Micromechanics and Microengineering, 25(9) Abstract -This paper reports on the design, fabrication and thermomechanical study of ceramic LC resonators for wireless pressure reading, verified at room temperature, at 500 °C and at 1000 °C for pressures up to 2.5 bar. Five different devices were fabricated of high-temperature co-fired ceramics (HTCC) and characterized. Alumina green tape sheets were screen printed with platinum paste, micromachined, laminated and fired. The resulting samples were 21 x 19 mm 2 with different thicknesses. An embedded communicator part was integrated with either a passive backing part or with a pressure-sensing element, including an 80 µm thick and 6 mm diameter diaphragm. The study includes measuring thermally and mechanically induced resonance frequency shifts, and thermally induced deformations. For the pressure sensor device, contributions from changes in the relative permittivity and from expanding air, trapped in the cavity, were extracted. The devices exhibited thermomechanical robustness during heating, regardless of the thickness of the backing. The pressure sensitivity decreased with increasing temperature from 15 050 ppm/bar at room temperature to 2400 ppm/bar at 1000°C, due to the decreasing pressure difference between the external pressure and the air pressure inside the cavity.
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