Abstract
An electromagnetic microactuator with two stable positions is presented. The actuator consists of a cantilever beam with two free ends, a torsional beam with two fixed ends, planar coils and permanent magnets. The cantilever beam has two stable positions due to the use of permanent magnets. With electromagnetic actuation arising from the planar coils, the cantilever beam will switch from one stable position to the other. Mechanical and magnetic analysis are carried out on the actuator, and the device with a size of 2.2 mm×2.5 mm is fabricated with the UV-LIGA technology. The test results show that a current pulse with an amplitude of 70 mA is needed for actuator’s switching between the two stable states, and the switching time is no more than 6 ms. Displacement of the end of cantilever is about 15 µm.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Arjun Selvakumar, Khalil Najafi. Vertical comb array microactuators[J]. Journal of Microelectromeckanical Systems, 2003, 12(4): 410–449.
Debeda H, Freyhold T V, Mohr J, et al. Development of miniaturized piezoelectric actuators for optical applications realized using LIGA technology [J]. IEEE Journal of Microelectromechanical Systems, 1999, 8 (3): 258–263.
Quandt E, Seemann K. Fabrication and simulation of magnetostrictive thin-film actuators [J]. Sensors and Actuators A, 1995, 50(1,2): 105–109.
Judy J W, Muller R S. Magnetic microactuation of torsional polysilicon structures [J]. Sensors and Actuators A, 1996, 53(1–3): 392–397.
Riethmuller W, Benecke W. Thermally excited silicon microactuators [J]. IEEE Trans. Electron. Devices, 1998, 35(6): 758–763.
Hiroyuki Fujita. Studies of micro actuators in Japan[A]. Proc. IEEE Int. Conf. Robotics and Automation [C]. Scottsdale, AZ, 1989, 1559–1564.
Ruan M, Shen J, Wheeler C B. Latching microelec-tromagnetic relays[J]. Sensors and Actuators A, 2001, 91(3): 346–350.
Ren H, Gerhard E. Design and fabrication of a current-pulse-excited bistable magnetic microactuator [J]. Sensors and Actuators A, 1997, 58(3): 259–264.
Su Y L. Mechanics of Materials [M]. 2nd ed., Higher Education Press, Beijing, 1987 (in Chinese).
Chin Tsung-shune. Permanent magnet films for applications in microelectromechanical systems [J]. Journal of Magnetism and Magnetic Materials, 2000, 209(1–3): 75–79.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Additional information
Projece supported by National Natural Science Foundatin of China(Grant No. 10377009), National High-Technology Research and Development Program(Grant No. 863 - 2003AA404140), and Science Foundation of National Information Industry Ministry of China(Grant No. 41308050116)
About this article
Cite this article
Zhang, Yh., Ding, Gf., Sun, Xf. et al. Design and fabrication of a bistable electromagnetic microactuator. J. of Shanghai Univ. 10, 541–546 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11741-006-0054-1
Received:
Revised:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11741-006-0054-1