MEMS Comb Drive Actuator: A Comparison of Power Dissipation Using Different Structural Design and Materials Using COMSOL 3.5b

A Comb Drive Actuator is a basic actuation device of MEMS. MEMS applications often require large force, large displacement, low-power and energy-efficient actuators. Low power consumption is highly desirable not only for economic reasons, but also for heat generation considerations. In this paper, different types of structural design of Comb Drive Actuator that is Fixed-Fixed Flexure Beam, Crab-Leg Flexure Beam and Folded Flexure Beam have been designed and Correspondingly compared their Power Dissipation using different types of materials which includes Semiconductor (Polysilicon), Polymer (Polyimide) and Metal (Copper). The actuation of this Comb Drive structure is based on Piezoelectric Effect, for this a piezoelectric material (Lead Zirconate Titanate PZT-5A) has been used. COMSOL Multiphysics 4.3b is being used for the designing purpose as it offers accurate analysis including controlled displacement of movable comb structure which is achieved by prescribing the force produced due to certain amount of deformation of Piezoelectric material on the application of Electric Potential across it. An increased displacement will subsequently be resulted on application of potential of 60V and 130V.