Fabrication and test of thermal vertical bimorph actuators for movement in the wafer plane

Sehr, H, Brunnschweiler, A, Evans, A, Ensell, G and Niblock, T (2001) Fabrication and test of thermal vertical bimorph actuators for movement in the wafer plane. Journal of Micromechanics and Microengineering, 11 (4), 306. (doi:10.1088/0960-1317/11/4/303).

Abstract

We have fabricated thermal actuators based on vertical bimorphs, which consist of silicon beams side-coated with aluminium. When they are heated by an electrical current they bend like a bimetal and produce movement in the wafer plane. The fabrication process is based on silicon-on-insulator substrates and uses standard silicon micromachining techniques combined with a special aluminium sidewall deposition process. The displacement has been measured as a function of the input power and the results have been compared with an FEA-simulation.

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