DESIGN THE MICRO LINEAR MOTOR USING V-SHAPED ELECTRO-THERMAL ACTUATORS

Abstract

This paper presents a micro linear motor with simulation and measurement of electro-thermal actuators based on thermal expansion of V-shape silicon beams when applying a voltage. The processes have been carried out with three types of motors with different numbers of thermal expansion beams, i.e. 3, 6 and 10 in V = 5 ÷ 30V voltage range. In theoretical calculations, the driving force increase with the larger number of actuator beams but the displacements is constan . Measured displacements of the motor shuttle are from 12 to 18 µm and driving force can reach tens of millinewton (mN). By measurement of the step displacement with driving frequency from 1 to 30 Hz, it can be seen that the optimal range of applied voltage is from 15 to 30 V.  The advantages of the motor are small size, simple fabrication process with only single mask, high accuracy control.