Publications

Thermomechanical measurements on thermal microactuators

Phinney, Leslie M.; Epp, David E.; Serrano, Justin R.; Gorby, Allen D.

Due to the coupling of thermal and mechanical behaviors at small scales, a Campaign 6 project was created to investigate thermomechanical phenomena in microsystems. This report documents experimental measurements conducted under the auspices of this project. Since thermal and mechanical measurements for thermal microactuators were not available for a single microactuator design, a comprehensive suite of thermal and mechanical experimental data was taken and compiled for model validation purposes. Three thermal microactuator designs were selected and fabricated using the SUMMiT V{sup TM} process at Sandia National Laboratories. Thermal and mechanical measurements for the bent-beam polycrystalline silicon thermal microactuators are reported, including displacement, overall actuator electrical resistance, force, temperature profiles along microactuator legs in standard laboratory air pressures and reduced pressures down to 50 mTorr, resonant frequency, out-of-plane displacement, and dynamic displacement response to applied voltages.