Fabrication and characterizations of a monolithic PZT microstage

Abstract

This paper reports on the fabrication and characterizations of a monolithic Pb(ZrTi)O 3 (PZT) microstage with multi-degrees of freedom for high-precision positioning. The entire device is fabricated in a symmetrical arrangement from a PZT plate with a size of 15 · 15 · 0.8 mm 3 . Four actuation units with displacement amplification mechanisms are integrated in the structure. All the actuators can be driven individually which result in movements of a stage in different directions. The main fabrication steps include dicing, electroplating, lithography and laser machining. The performances of the displacement and the resonant frequencies of the microstage are simulated using a finite element method (FEM) with different dimensions. A prototype has been fabricated and evaluated. Comparisons between FEM simulation and experimental results are carried out.

Design and fabrication of novel micro electromagnetic actuator

“…Broadly speaking, the micro actuators presented in the literature can be categorized as either static, electromagnetic, or piezoelectric (Liu et al 1994;Lagorce et al 1999;Yamahata et al 2005;Zhu et al 2005;Xu et al 2006;Chen et al 2007;Ma et al 2008). Liu et al (1994) fabricated a system of magnetic flaps intended for use in an active MEMS-based fluid control system.…”

“…For example, Zhu et al (2005) utilized a sol-gel method to fabricate thin piezoelectric films for the actuation of micro-cantilever arrays in hard disk drives. Meanwhile, Xu et al (2006) presented a monolithic Pb(ZrTi)O 3 -actuated multiple degree-of-freedom micro-stage for high-precision positioning applications. Chen et al (2007) utilized UV-LIGA multilevel electroforming techniques to fabricate piezoelectrically-actuated micropumps and micro-ejectors, and demonstrated experimentally that displacements as high as 250 nm could be achieved by applying a 120-V pp sinusoidal waveform with a frequency of 1 kHz.…”

Experimental verification of an out-of-plane repulsive-force electrostatic actuator using a macroscopic mechanism

“…Among the four major actuation technologies used in MEMS devicents, i.e., electrostatic actuation (Aksyuk et al 2003;Chen et al 2007;Hagelin and Solgaard 1999;Lee et al 1999;Van Kessel et al 1998), electromagnetic actuation (Bernstein et al 2004;Debray et al 2004), thermal actuation (Jain et al 2004) and piezoelectric actuation (Goto 1998;Xu et al 2006), electrostatic actuation is adopted in many applications due to its high compatibility with micro fabrication technology, low power consumption and quick response. Conventional micro electrostatic actuators use the attractive force between two parallel electrodes to generate movement, i.e., the two electrodes move towards each other.…”

A large displacement piezodriven silicon XY-microstage

“…This design features a compact sized XY-microstage with a large stage area. Piezoelectric actuation was chosen on the basis of its high operation frequency, fast response, low driving voltage and precise positioning ability [9]. However, its low intrinsic actuation requires amplification [10], using a dedicated amplification mechanism which is a key feature in this XY-microstage design.…”