A sub-micron metallic electrothermal gripper

Abstract

We report the design, fabrication, and characterization of a multiple bent beam, sub-micron metallic electrothermal gripper. A bottom electroplating mold for electrodes was patterned using electron beam lithography in an SU-8, followed by nickel electroplating. A top electroplating mold for a sub-micron metallic gripper with high aspect ratio bent beams (thickness of 1 lm, width of 350 nm) was prepared using electron beam lithography in a polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA), followed by nickel electroplating and dry release of the top and bottom molds. The sub-micron gripper was characterized using a nanomanipulator system installed in a dual column scanning electron microscopy/focused ion beam system. The ability of the jaw to close up to 1.39 lm displacement with high precision and reliability has been reproducibly observed at an applied current of 28 mA, corresponding to the maximum power consumption of 11.2 mW. Finite element modeling displacement results performed using ANSYS for effective bent beam widths of 370 nm showed a good agreement with the measured displacement results. The sub-micron gripper demonstrated herein will enable the reproducible manipulations with nano-scale resolution displacement and could provide an effective means of interface between nano-scale objects and the micro/macro scale robotic systems.

On the Sensitivity of Nanogripper-Carbon Nanotube Friction to Contact Area

“…An extensive volume of research has been dedicated to the design and development of carbon nanotube-based electromechanical devices in nanoscale [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8].…”

SU-8 Electrothermal Actuators: Optimization of Fabrication and Excitation for Long-Term Use

“…Deflections >100 μm and forces >100 mN can be provided at an energy density higher than of electrostatic actuators. Electrothermal actuators can be fabricated from metal [1,2], silicon [3,4] or polymer materials such as epoxide, polyimide [5] or polyether ether ketone (PEEK) [6]. Applications of miniaturized thermal actuators are the positioning of optical fibers [7], micro grippers [3,[8][9][10], relays [11,12], Radio Frequency (RF) switches [13] or miniaturized drives [14].…”