Micromechanical silicon actuators based on thermal expansion effects

A new type of micromachined silicon actuator has been developed, based on the so-called bimetallic effect. The basic element of the actuator is a cantilever consisting of a silicon-metal sandwich structure, which can be heated via an intermediate electrically isolated polysilicon resistor. For the fabrication only standard microelectronic process technologies and selective anisotropic etching of silicon are used. The result is an absolutely monolithic micromechanical silicon actuator which can work with standard microelectronic voltages. First experimental results are presented and an outline of the fabrication process is given. (IMT