Bi-directional electrothermal electromagnetic actuators

A new breed of in-plane bi-directional MEMS actuators based on controlled electrothermal buckling and electromagnetic Lorentz force has been demonstrated under both dc and ac operations. Experimentally, bi-directional actuators made by the standard surface-micromachining process have a lateral actuation range of several microns and can exert forces over 100 μN, while those made by SOI and MetalMUMPs processes have an operation range up to several tens of microns and can exert more than 20 mN of force. Reliability tests show that SOI/MetalMUMPs and surface-micromachined actuators can operate for more than 1 and 100 million cycles, respectively, with no signs of degradation. As such, these micro-actuators could be used for MEMS devices that require a bi-directional movement with a large force output such as bi-directional micro-relays. (Some figures in this article are in colour only in the electronic version)