Design, analysis and testing of rotary type micro thermal actuators

Micro electro mechanical system (MEMS) has opened a new horizon for realizing smaller physical systems. The current trend of developing any physical device for technological applications is to have smaller, economical, reliable and functional devices. MEMS has significantly scaled down the size of the devices while offering more functionality by having fully integrated devices in micro level. MEMS devices have also proven to be cost effective. In MEMS applications, researchers are consistently searching for innovative concepts to develop actuators, which play a key role in any integrated system. Micro electro thermal actuator is one such concept that offers more force and displacement than other mechanisms available in micro level. The present research effort is directed towards development of a novel rotary type micro thermal actuator that may be attractive for various optical applications like switching, diffraction, attenuation etc. This thesis proposes various design topologies which offer rotary motion of cold disc energized by electrical potential. The proposed designs are analyzed by analytical and finite difference methods along with finite element analysis using commercial software, ANSYS. A proposed design for the actuator is analyzed to evaluate influence of parameters. The parametric analysis examines the influence of parameters on the motion of the actuator. A prototype actuator and experiment setup is fabricated to test the performance of the design. The experimental results demonstrate the functionality and effectiveness of the proposed device as an actuator, as well as the validity of the modeling techniques used to simulate the performance of the novel rotary type micro thermal actuator