A powerful and effective design of a polymeric thermal microactuator is presented. The design has SU-8 epoxy layers filled and bonded in a meandering silicon ͑Si͒ microstructure. The silicon microstructure reinforces the SU-8 layers by lateral restraint. It also improves the transverse thermal expansion coefficient and heat transfer for the bonded SU-8 layers. A theoretical model shows that the proposed SU-8/Si composite can deliver an actuation stress of 1.30 MPa/ K, which is approximately 2.7 times higher than the unconstrained SU-8 layer, while delivering an approximately equal thermal strain. © 2007 American Institute of Physics. ͓DOI: 10.1063/1.2742599͔ Thermal actuators feature relatively high actuation stress or strain. However, they have shortcomings in terms of high power consumption and high operating temperatures. 1,2 To a large extent, their performance depends on the selected thermal expansion materials. 3 For example, silicon and metals with high moduli of elasticity produce high actuation stresses, but polymers with high thermal expansion coefficients ͑CTEs͒ deliver relatively high actuation strains. According to Ashby, 4 the linear CTE ͑␣͒ is almost inversely proportional to Young's modulus ͑E͒. This means that compliant but high-CTE polymers may not be ideal for generating large actuation stress and strain simultaneously. Owing to their electrical and thermal insulating properties, most polymers require integrated heaters to enable electrical activation. 2,5 The heaters are normally made of surface metallic films and may induce nonuniform heating across the polymeric thickness. This may inevitably cause out-of-plane bending to the polymeric layers.In this letter, we present a design of polymeric thermal actuators to accomplish enhanced in-plane actuation. This design combines multiple materials for effective thermal actuation. It consists of an aluminum film heater, a silicon ͑Si͒ microstructure, and polymeric epoxy ͑SU-8͒ encapsulant ͑see Fig. 1͒. The silicon microstructure is meandering in shape and has a high aspect ratio. Its gaps and surrounding areas are filled and encapsulated with SU-8 epoxy, whereas its top is covered with the aluminum ͑Al͒ heater. The Si "skeleton" serves to conduct heat and to reinforce the SU-8 encapsulant; the Al line is responsible for resistive heating; whereas, the SU-8 epoxy serves to expand and open the spacing of the Si skeleton.The proposed design has been fabricated using bulk micromachining of silicon and casting of SU-8-2002 polymer. 6 Testing shows that a 530-m-long sample device ͑consisting of a 0.675-m-thick Al film and a 50-m-high Si microstrcutrure͒ delivers a 2.5% in-plane longitudinal strain at 2 V, while consuming less than 27 mW ͓see Fig. 1͑b͔͒, and shows no noticeable out-of-plane motion. The actuation using this composite design is efficient. This motivates investigation into its potential actuation capabilities. The normal activation of the actuator design by resistive heating causes an unknown and nonuniform temperature distribution. This ma...