Design, analysis and fabrication of silicon microfixture with electrothermal microclamp cell

Vismeh, Milad; Salimi, Parisa

doi:10.1016/j.mee.2013.03.098

Cited by 9 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 13 publications

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“…The thermal insulation boundary condition is another condition imposed on the model where q 0 is set to zero in this case. We also follow an analytical approach based on beam theory to estimate the static response of the electrothermal actuator when subjected to an input voltage, as per the model reported in [45]. The tip displacement is expressed as:…”

Section: Electrothermal Actuation: Theoretical Backgroundmentioning

confidence: 99%

Modeling and Design Enhancement of Electrothermal Actuators for Microgripping Applications

Pour,

Ghommem,

Abdelkefi

2023

Applied Sciences

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Microgrippers are miniature tools that have the capability to handle and manipulate micro- and nano-scale objects. The present work demonstrates the potential impact of the incorporation of perforations on a ‘hot and cold arm’ electrothermal actuation mechanism in order to improve the operation of microgrippers in terms of arm opening and operating temperature. By applying a voltage to one arm and setting the other as a ground, the current passes through the electrothermal actuator and induces its displacement along the in-plane direction. The difference in the geometry of the two arms causes one arm to expand more than the other and this results in transverse bending. A computational model was developed using a finite element analysis tool to simulate the response of the thermal actuators with varying geometries and investigate the impact of incorporating perforations on the arms of the thermal actuators to enhance its performance in terms of deflection and operating temperature. The simulation results were compared to their experimental counterparts reported in the literature. A good agreement between the numerical and experimental data was obtained. A novel design of a microgripper, made of perforated electrothermal actuators, was introduced. Its main characteristics, including the tip opening of the gripper arms, the applied voltage, and the stress and temperature distributions, were analyzed using the developed computational model. Different perforation shape and distribution were investigated. The present study demonstrates the capability of perforations to enhance the operation of microgrippers as manifested by the obtained higher tip displacement and lower tip temperature in comparison to conventional microgripper designs made of non-perforated thermal actuators. Furthermore, the highest stress generated on the microgripper elements was found to be much lower than the yield strength of the constituent material, which indicates proper functioning without any mechanical failure.

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Section: Electrothermal Actuation: Theoretical Backgroundmentioning

confidence: 99%

Modeling and Design Enhancement of Electrothermal Actuators for Microgripping Applications

Pour,

Ghommem,

Abdelkefi

2023

Applied Sciences

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“…The constantly growing need for high-precision micromanipulation has seen the implementation of microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) in numerous applications within the micromanufacturing and biomedical fields. Microgrippers are one such type of MEMS devices that are typically designed to safely manipulate biological cells [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9] as well as micromechanical parts [10][11][12]. The successful development of a MEMS microgripper depends on taking into account several factors including the design and mechanical structure [13], the actuation mechanism [14,15], the choice of materials used [16][17][18][19], the operational requirements and limitations [20], the fabrication technology [21][22][23][24][25][26], and the environment in which the microgripper will be operated [27].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Effects of Structure Thickness, Air Gap Thickness and Silicon Type on the Performance of a Horizontal Electrothermal MEMS Microgripper

et al. 2018

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The ongoing development of microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) over the past decades has made possible the achievement of high-precision micromanipulation within the micromanufacturing, microassembly and biomedical fields. This paper presents different design variants of a horizontal electrothermally actuated MEMS microgripper that are developed as microsystems to micromanipulate and study the deformability properties of human red blood cells (RBCs). The presented microgripper design variants are all based on the U-shape 'hot and cold arm' actuator configuration, and are fabricated using the commercially available Multi-User MEMS Processes (MUMPs R ) that are produced by MEMSCAP, Inc. (Durham, NC, USA) and that include both surface micromachined (PolyMUMPs TM ) and silicon-on-insulator (SOIMUMPs TM ) MEMS fabrication technologies. The studied microgripper design variants have the same in-plane geometry, with their main differences arising from the thickness of the fabricated structures, the consequent air gap separation between the structure and the substrate surface, as well as the intrinsic nature of the silicon material used. These factors are all inherent characteristics of the specific fabrication technologies used. PolyMUMPs TM utilises polycrystalline silicon structures that are composed of two free-standing, independently stackable structural layers, enabling the user to achieve structure thicknesses of 1.5 µm, 2 µm and 3.5 µm, respectively, whereas SOIMUMPs TM utilises a 25 µm thick single crystal silicon structure having only one free-standing structural layer. The microgripper design variants are presented and compared in this work to investigate the effect of their differences on the temperature distribution and the achieved end-effector displacement. These design variants were analytically studied, as well as numerically modelled using finite element analysis where coupled electrothermomechanical simulations were carried out in CoventorWare R (Version 10, Coventor, Inc., Cary, NC, USA). Experimental results for the microgrippers' actuation under atmospheric pressure were obtained via optical microscopy studies for the PolyMUMPs TM structures, and they were found to be conforming with the predictions of the analytical and numerical models. The focus of this work is to identify which one of the studied design variants best optimises the microgripper's electrothermomechanical performance in terms of a sufficient lateral tip displacement, minimum out-of-plane displacement at the arm tips and good heat transfer to limit the temperature at the cell gripping zone, as required for the deformability study of RBCs.

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“…A variety of microgrippers have been studied using the SU-8 based electrothermal actuators designed on different configurations such as, U-shape or V-shape. This is proving the interest in the bio-micro-manipulation domain [1,[4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23]. SU-8 is a highly crosslinked epoxy-type photo-patternable polymer which has been used extensively as the preferred polymer material for fabrication of biocompatible structures.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

An SU-8 Microgripper Based on the Cascaded V-Shaped Electrothermal Actuators: Design, Fabrication, Simulation and Experimental Investigations

Voicu¹

2018

Actuators

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This chapter presents the design, fabrication, numerical simulations and experimental investigations of a polymeric microgripper designed using the cascaded V-shaped electrothermal actuators. The microgripper has a total length around 1 mm and a total thickness of only 20 μm. The microgripper was simulated using electro-thermo-mechanical finite element method (FEM) in order to check the performance of the gripper. As structural material of the microgripper, the SU-8 biocompatible polymer was used during the fabrication process. A fabrication process was implemented to realize the microgripper using a symmetrically sandwich structure. The metallic micro-heaters were encapsulated in the polymeric actuation structure of the microgrippers to reduce the undesirable out-of-plane displacement of the gripper tips and the mechanical stress, to improve the thermal efficiency, and for obtaining the electrical isolation of the structure. Experimental testing has been performed to determine the openings and the temperatures of the microgripper tips as function of electrical current. A displacement of the tips of more than 50 μm can be obtained at an electrical current of around 26-28 mA. A comparison between the simulation results and the measurements were also presented.

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Design, analysis and fabrication of silicon microfixture with electrothermal microclamp cell

Cited by 9 publications

References 13 publications

Modeling and Design Enhancement of Electrothermal Actuators for Microgripping Applications

Modeling and Design Enhancement of Electrothermal Actuators for Microgripping Applications

The Effects of Structure Thickness, Air Gap Thickness and Silicon Type on the Performance of a Horizontal Electrothermal MEMS Microgripper

An SU-8 Microgripper Based on the Cascaded V-Shaped Electrothermal Actuators: Design, Fabrication, Simulation and Experimental Investigations

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