Article
Engineering, Electrical & Electronic
Mohammad Akbari, Farshad Barazandeh, Hamed Barati
Summary: This study presents a systematic approach for designing and fabricating a MEMS electrothermal microgripper for single-cell manipulation, with a list of constraints required for microgripper design. By developing required analytical models and employing a genetic algorithm to optimize the design, the microgripper structure was successfully designed to meet all constraints.
SENSORS AND ACTUATORS A-PHYSICAL
(2022)
Article
Physics, Applied
Monan Ma, K. L. Ekinci
Summary: We investigated the electrothermal actuation of nanomechanical motion using numerical simulations and analytical solutions. The structure of the nanoelectrothermal actuator consists of a U-shaped gold nanoresistor patterned on the anchor of a doubly clamped nanomechanical beam or a microcantilever resonator. Our finite-element analysis based model efficiently combines transient and frequency-domain analyses to calculate the temperature and displacement fields over a wide range of actuation frequencies and amplitudes. We validated our model by comparing the numerical results with experimental measurements of displacement amplitudes in vacuum.
JOURNAL OF APPLIED PHYSICS
(2023)
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Parham Dadash Pour, Mehdi Ghommem, Abdessattar Abdelkefi
Summary: This study demonstrates the impact of incorporating perforations on the operation of microgrippers, improving their performance in terms of displacement and temperature. A novel design of microgripper using perforated electrothermal actuators was introduced, achieving better operation and lower stress. Computational modeling and experimental verification were conducted to analyze the effects of different perforation shapes and distributions.
APPLIED SCIENCES-BASEL
(2023)
Article
Engineering, Electrical & Electronic
Jing Zhang, Hao Wu, Hao Shen, Liwei Xue, Wenxia Zhang, Yumo Liu, Fenhao Du, Lei Pan, Haibo Huang, Lin Lin, Liguo Chen
Summary: This paper mainly studies the high-temperature problem of the electrothermal microgripper with a parallel beam (EMPB). A temperature model based on the structure analysis was built, followed by a series of optimal designs of temperature field. The feasibility of the temperature optimization was verified by experiments.
SENSORS AND ACTUATORS A-PHYSICAL
(2022)
Article
Chemistry, Analytical
Pedro Vargas-Chable, Margarita Tecpoyotl-Torres, Gerardo Vera-Dimas, Volodymyr Grimalsky, Jose Mireles Garcia Jr
Summary: This article discusses the applications of microgrippers in various fields and explores a novel microgripper design and its driving method. Numerical modeling and experimental results demonstrate the feasibility of this microgripper with acceptable performance parameters.
Article
Chemistry, Analytical
Margarita Tecpoyotl-Torres, Pedro Vargas-Chable, Jesus Escobedo-Alatorre, Luis Cisneros-Villalobos, Josahandy Sarabia-Vergara
Summary: This study modified a V-shaped microactuator and investigated its effects on force and displacement. The results showed that the proposed microactuator had a significant increase in force compared to a similar microactuator and a V-shaped microactuator, while the displacement slightly decreased. When applied to a microgripper, the modified microactuator also contributed to an increase in displacement, force, and natural frequency, without reaching critical temperatures for microobjects.
Article
Chemistry, Analytical
Nicola Pio Belfiore, Alvise Bagolini, Andrea Rossi, Gabriele Bocchetta, Federica Vurchio, Rocco Crescenzi, Andrea Scorza, Pierluigi Bellutti, Salvatore Andrea Sciuto
Summary: This study presents the development of a new microgripper actuated by rotary-comb drives with CSFH flexures. The adoption of multiple CSFHs allows for complex mechanical structures and increased design parameters. The fabricated microgripper has been tested in the lab and the results were used to evaluate simulation tools for minimizing expensive equipment in operational environments.
Article
Engineering, Electrical & Electronic
Alissa Potekhina, Rodica-Cristina Voicu, Raluca Muller, Muaiyd H. M. Al-Zandi, Changhai Wang
Summary: This paper presents the design and characterization of an SU-8 based electrothermal microgripper with embedded Au thin film heaters. The optimized polynomial design is shown to be 5-10% more efficient in operation than the straight beam design. The microgripper exhibits negative deflection at low actuation temperatures due to moisture absorption from the ambient environment.
MICROSYSTEM TECHNOLOGIES-MICRO-AND NANOSYSTEMS-INFORMATION STORAGE AND PROCESSING SYSTEMS
(2021)
Article
Engineering, Electrical & Electronic
Ananya Roy, M. Nabi
Summary: Electrothermal microgrippers are widely used for their small size, low cost, and ease of manufacture, but modeling them is challenging due to the use of partial differential equations. A finite element method is used to model the microgrippers, generating a large number of ordinary differential equations. Nonlinear model order reduction methods are applied to account for nonlinear material properties of gold and SU-8 polymer. The effectiveness of the reduction method is demonstrated through simulation results.
MICROELECTRONICS RELIABILITY
(2021)
Article
Chemistry, Analytical
Guoning Si, Liangying Sun, Zhuo Zhang, Xuping Zhang
Summary: This paper presents the design, fabrication, and testing of a novel three-dimensional three-fingered electrothermal microgripper with multiple degrees of freedom. Experimental results show that the microgripper can not only pick and place microobjects, but also rotate them in three-dimensional space.
Article
Engineering, Electrical & Electronic
Yun Cao, Haotian Liu, Hao Chen, Hengbo Zhu, Weirong Nie, Zhanwen Xi
Summary: The study comprehensively investigated the dynamic thermal performance of MEMS electrothermal actuators using an infrared thermal microscope system, analyzing temperature distribution, heating and cooling performance, and frequency response under different waveform voltages. The established electro-thermo-structural coupling model showed fairly good agreement with the measured results through qualitative and quantitative comparisons.
IEEE SENSORS JOURNAL
(2021)
Article
Computer Science, Interdisciplinary Applications
Ananya Roy, M. Nabi, Najmur Rahman
Summary: This paper discusses the common applications and modeling methods of electrothermal microgrippers, highlighting the limitations of traditional parametric model order reduction methods in cases of geometric parameter variations. A new matrix interpolation method is proposed to address this issue, demonstrating its effectiveness through simulation results.
JOURNAL OF COMPUTATIONAL DESIGN AND ENGINEERING
(2021)
Article
Chemistry, Analytical
David Torres, LaVern Starman, Harris Hall, Juan Pastrana, Sarah Dooley
Summary: This paper presents a novel MEMS micromirror device capable of achieving large motion for both tip/tilt angles and piston motion. The device utilizes an electrothermal actuation assembly fabricated from carefully patterned thin-film stack, enabling large-angle beamsteering. The measured performance metrics include tip/tilt angles of +/- 23 degrees, piston motion of 127 mu m, and resonant frequencies at around 145 Hz and 226 Hz for tip/tilt and piston motion, respectively.
Article
Nanoscience & Nanotechnology
Hengzhang Yang, Anrun Ren, Yingtao Ding, Lei Xiao, Teng Pan, Yangyang Yan, Wenlong Jiao, Huikai Xie
Summary: This study presents an electrothermal micromirror based on photosensitive polyimide, which shows improved robustness compared to silicon dioxide-based micromirrors. The PSPI-based micromirror achieved a wide optical scan angle and a significant vertical displacement at a low voltage. Through various tests, the PSPI-based micromirror demonstrated at least 4 times better robustness than the SiO2-based micromirror.
MICROSYSTEMS & NANOENGINEERING
(2023)
Article
Chemistry, Analytical
Yuanlin Xia, Yujie Wang, Tianxiang Liang, Zhen Peng, Liang He, Zhuqing Wang
Summary: In this paper, a portable photoacoustic microscopy (PAM) system based on a large stroke electrothermal micromirror is proposed to achieve high resolution and fast imaging. The crucial micromirror in the system allows for precise and efficient 2-axis control. The system exhibits advantages in image resolution and control accuracy, indicating significant potential in the field of facial angiography.
