Design and Fabrication of a MEMS Electromagnetic Swing-Type Actuator for Optical Switch

Abstract

A microelectromechanical systems system (MEMS) electromagnetic swing-type actuator is proposed for an optical fiber switch in this paper. The actuator has a compact size of 5.1 × 5.1 × 5.3 mm3, consisting of two stators, a swing disc (rotator), a rotating shaft, and protective covers. Multi-winding stators and a multipole rotator were adopted to increase the output torque of the actuator. The actuator’s working principle and magnetic circuit were analyzed. The calculation results show that the actuator’s output torque is decisive to the air gap’s magnetic flux density between the stators and the swing disc. NiFe alloy magnetic cores were embedded into each winding center to increase the magnetic flux density. A special manufacturing process was developed for fabricating the stator windings on the ferrite substrate. Six copper windings and NiFe magnetic cores were electroplated onto the ferrite substrates. The corresponding six magnetic poles were configured to the SmCo permanent magnet on the swing disc. A magnetizing device with a particular size was designed and fabricated to magnetize the permanent magnet of the swing disc. The actuator prototype was fabricated, and the performance was tested. The results show that the actuator has a large output torque (40 μNm), fast response (5 ms), and a large swing angle (22°).

Design and Control of a Trapezoidal Piezoelectric Bimorph Actuator for Optical Fiber Alignment

“…Many of the existing micro actuators have been driven mainly by electric heating elements [1], electrostatic plates [2], electromagnetic elements [3], piezoelectric components [4] and shape memory [5]. A direct-coupled optical switch [6] based on an electrothermaldriven cantilever was designed to have output displacement of 130 µm with a driven voltage of 44 V. As the temperature effect cannot be ignored, Dai et al [7] coupled a massspring system with the actuator, while the method caused a size increase.…”

Demonstration of Heterogeneous Structure for Fabricating a Comb-Drive Actuator for Cryogenic Applications

“…Precision positioning of microactuators has attracted great interests owing to their practical applications in diverse fields, such as scanning probe microscopy (SPM) [1,2], probe-based data-storage systems [3,4], and micro-optical systems [5,6]. Up to now, various types of microactuators have been well developed on the basis of the actuation mechanisms of electrostatic [7,8], piezoelectric [9], thermoelectric [10], and electromagnetic [11]. Among these, electrostatic-based microactuators have been extensively studied as attractive positioning devices because of their large displacement range, easy manufacturing, and high system integration [12][13][14][15].…”

New Possibilities for Testing the Service Life of Magnetic Contacts

“…When the magnet is moved away, for example, due to the opening of a door or window, the magnetic field affecting the tongue contact weakens, and the contact changes its state to the opposite. If the contact is of the normally closed type, it opens, and if it is of the normally open type, it closes [ 7 , 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 ].…”

“…For example, Gong and his team focused on measuring the sorting of magnets in factory production, in which they pointed to the lack of homogeneity of the magnetic field. In one of their studies, the Carus team focused on improving the efficiency of electric drives using permanent magnets, within which the goal was to define a uniform procedure for measuring the impact on control algorithms [ 11 , 18 , 19 ].…”

“…When the magnet is moved away, for example, due to the opening of a door or window, the magnetic field affecting the tongue contact weakens, and the contact changes its state to the opposite. If the contact is of the normally closed type, it opens, and if it is of the normally open type, it closes [7,[9][10][11][12]. The reliability or correct functionality of the magnetic contacts can be tested according to predefined possibilities, as specified in more detail in the European technical standard with the type designation EN 50131-2-6 [13].…”