This thesis examines the development and testing of a novel 2 DOF (Degrees of Freedom) thermal actuator using Micro Electro Mechanical Systems (MEMS) technology. A out-of-plane displacement measurement technique based on optical focus adjustments is also implemented and tested. In-plane displacement measurement techniques are also compared. Existing MEMS actuator can either move in-plane or out-of-plane but no reported actuators were found to move in a user selectable combination of both domains. The novel actuator fabricated using the PolyMUMPs process is capable of displacements of 5 ?m out-of-plane and 1.5 ?m in-plane. A Finite Element Analysis (FEA) was performed as a proof of concept prior to physical construction. FEA was also used to characterize the actuator. Measuring out-of-plane displacements of MEMS devices is difficult to accomplish using only a standard microscope and camera setup. Methods have included tilting the chip so the vertical motion has a planar component. The most common commercial measurement technique uses interferomery but special expensive equipment is necessary. A method adapted from biological autofocus is proposed in which multiple images (100+) are taken at various focal planes. An algorithm is applied which extracts the most focused image. An out-of-plane displacement measurement can be extracted between two image sets. Results were compared to optical profiler measurements and the results had an average error of 0.47 ?m A comparison of planar displacement measurement methods, which included two variations of both edge detection and pattern matching along with measurements using the optical profiler, was accomplished. Consistent planar displacement results were collected for all techniques except for the simple edge detection.

This thesis describes a finite element analysis (FEA) model of an indirect heating thermal actuator. The heat transfer mechanisms are investigated and the conductive heat transfer is found to be the dominant heat transfer mode. A model simplification method is discussed and used in the analysis to reduce the degrees of freedom and avoid meshing failures. The device is fabricated with the MetalMUMPs process. Measurements of the displacement as a function of the driving voltage are made to verify the FEA model. The results show that the simulation result of the FEA model produced a reasonable agreement with the experimental data. The difference between the FEA result and test result is investigated. A novel thermal actuator with integrated capacitive position sensor is also investigated. This new thermal actuator with an integrated capacitive sensor uses the indirect heating thermal actuator discussed in the first part of the thesis to achieve a new integration method. The displacement of the actuator provided by the sensor enables a feedback control capability. The analytical model, FEA and test results for the capacitive sensor are presented to validate the design concept. The test results show a reasonable agreement with the analytical analysis and the FEA. Finally, a manual displacement tuning application and a PI feedback control application with the designed thermal actuator with integrated capacitive sensor are documented. / Thesis (Master, Mechanical and Materials Engineering) -- Queen's University, 2009-07-03 16:17:02.633

Two compliant bistable micro-mechanisms have been developed which can be switched in either direction using on-chip thermal actuation. The energy storage and bistable behavior of the mechanisms are achieved through the elastic deflection of compliant segments. The pseudo-rigid-body model was used for the compliant mechanism design, and for analysis of the large-deflection flexible segments. To achieve on-chip actuation, the mechanism designs were optimized to reduce their required rotation, allow them to be switched using linear-motion thermal actuators. The modeling theory and analysis are presented for several design iterations. Each iteration was successfully fabricated and tested using either the MUMPs or SUMMiT surface micromachining technology.

The electrothermomechanical characteristics of an electrically-heated polycrystallinesilicon microactuator are explored. Using finite-difference techniques, an electrothermal model based on the balance of heat dissipation and heat losses is developed. For accurate simulation, the relevant temperature dependent properties from the microactuator material are included in the model. The electrothermal model accurately predicts the steady-state power required to hold position, and the energy consumed during the thermal transient. Thermomechanical models use the predictions of temperature from the electrothermal solution to calculate displacement and force from pseudo-rigid-body approximations and commercial finite-element code. The models are verified by comparing experimental data to simulation results of a single leg-pair on a particular configuration of the device. The particular microactuator studied is called a Thermomechanical In-plane Microactuator, or TIM, and was fabricated with surface micromachining technology. A TIM requires a single releasable structural layer, is extremely flexible in design, and can operate with simple drive and control circuitry. The TIM produces linear motion of a center shuttle when slender legs on either side move the shuttle as a result of constrained thermal expansion. In a single example, when the current through a leg with dimensions 250×3×3.5 µm^3 and suspended 2 µm off the substrate is sufficient to maintain an average temperature of 615 C in air and vacuum environments, model simulated temperatures along the leg have a peak of 860 C in air and 1100 C in vacuum. The final measured and predicted displacement is 14 µm. In air, the power predicted by the model needed to maintain this average temperature profile is 95 mW while consuming 16.4 µJ in 0.22 ms to reach 90 percent of the final average temperature. In a vacuum, only 6.4 mW are required to maintain the same average temperature with 97.6 µJ consumed in 18.5 ms. Simulation results suggest that short-duration high-current pulses can improve the transient response and energy consumed in a vacuum when steady-state temperatures are not required. For a TIM leg with the dimensions above, the maximum measured force is approximately 47 µN per leg-pair when enough current is provided to move the TIM 8 µm as a result of ohmic heating and thermal expansion.

This thesis presents the design and fabrication of a re-configurable micromirror array which can be used as a component of an optical microspectrometer. In an optical microspectrometer, an array of mechanically positionable micromirrors can be implemented as a reconfigurable exit slit to selectively focus particular wavelengths of a diffracted spectrum onto the detector stage. The signal to noise ratio and response time of an optical microspectrometer can be vastly improved by this technique. In the approach presented here, a hybrid bulk- and surface- micromachining process is demonstrated for fabrication of a 1XN array of micromirrors. The reconfigurable micromirrors presented here comprise of two elements, a surfacemicromachined positioning mechanism, and a bulk-micromachined mirror. These elements are finally integrated using a flip-chip bonding technique. The integrated micromirror assembly can be positioned by means of a driving mechanism consisting of arrayed electrothermal actuators. Various techniques for fabricating the micromirror array components are discussed in detail in this thesis along with a review of techniques applicable for integrating the individual components. In order to enhance the efficiency of the positioning system, the classic electrothermal actuators were redesigned in this research. The modified design of thermal actuators is introduced in this thesis. An analysis of the modified thermal actuators is also presented to demonstrate the validity of the suggested modifications.

A model that accurately describes the transient and steady-state response of thermal microactuators is desirable to provide guidance for design and operation. However, modeling the full response of thermal actuators is challenging due to the temperature-dependent material properties and nonlinear deformations that must be included to obtain accurate results. To meet these challenges a three-dimensional multi-physics nonlinear finite-element model was developed using commercial code. The Thermomechanical Inplane Microactuator (TIM) was chosen as a candidate application to validate the model. TIMs were fabricated using the SUMMiT V™ process and their response was measured using a high-speed camera. The TIMs were modeled and the model output was compared to the experimental data. The finite-element model predicts the steady-state response to within 0.74 percent and the transient response, as described by the time constant, to within 42 percent. The usefulness of the model was further demonstrated by its predicting that response time and energy consumption can be reduced by actuating thermal microactuators with short-duration high-voltage pulses. This behavior was verified through testing. Feedback control has proven useful in improving reliability and performance for a variety of systems. However there has been limited success implementing feedback control on surface micromachined MEMS devices. The inherent difficulties in sensing microscale phenomena complicate the development of an economical transducer that can accurately monitor the states of a surface micromachined system. We have demonstrated a simple and effective sensing strategy that uses the piezoresistive property of the polysilicon thin film of which surface micromachined MEMS devices are fabricated. The states of the device are monitored by measuring the change in resistance of flexible members which deflect as the device moves. Measurement of the output displacement of an in-plane thermal actuator is presented as a candidate application. The thermal actuator is constructed of angled pairs of expansion legs that are connected to a center shuttle. As current flows through the legs they heat up and expand. The expansion causes the center shuttle to displace in the direction the legs are angled. The center shuttle is also connected to a pair of sensing legs. Theses legs are identical to the expansion legs except that they are angled in the opposite direction. Three other leg pairs are electrically connected to the sensing legs in a Wheatstone bridge configuration. An excitation voltage is applied to the bridge, and as the sensing legs deflect with the center shuttle displacement, the resistance change across the legs can be determined by measuring the voltage across the bridge. While there still is a noise issue to be dealt with, this setup provides adequate signal strength to implement feedback control using off-chip analog circuitry. Implementation of proportional/integral control on the system is successfully demonstrated.

The exploration of Microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) represents a crucial aspect in the advancement of modern science and technology. They offer low-cost solutions to miniaturize numerous devices. The increasing use of MEMS applications in biological research has created a pressing need for reliable micromanipulation tools. In this context, microgrippers have emerged as promising tools for the precise handling and characterization of biological samples. This thesis presents a novel biocompatible microgripper that utilizes electrothermal actuation integrated with a rotary capacitive position sensor. To overcome the limited displacement possibilities associated with electrothermal actuators, this microgripper incorporates conjugate surface flexure hinges (CSFH). These hinges enhance the desired tweezers output displacement. The designed microgripper can in principle manipulate biological samples ranging in size from 15 to 120 μm. Based on the sensitivity calculation of the rotary capacitive position sensors, the sensitivity of the displacement measurement is 102 fF/μm. By employing a kinematics modeling approach based on the pseudo-rigid-body method (PRBM), an equation for the displacement amplification factor is developed, and this equation is subsequently verified through FEM-based simulations. By comparing the amplification ratio value obtained from the analytical modeling and simulations, there is an excellent match, with a relative difference of only ~1%, thus demonstrating the effectiveness of the PRBM approach in modeling the kinematics of the structure under investigation. In addition to this, by using analytical modeling based on finite elements method (FEM), the design of the electrothermal actuator and the heat dissipation mechanism is optimized. FEM-based simulations are used to validate the theoretical modeling, demonstrating good agreement between the displacements derived from analytical modeling and simulations. The temperature difference (∆T) across a range from room temperature to 278°C exhibits a relative difference of ~2.8%. Moreover, underpass technology is implemented to ensure that electrical signals or disturbances from other parts of the device, such as the electrothermal actuation system, do not interfere with the operation and integrity of the gripping mechanism. Ultimately, the microgripper is fabricated using conventional MEMS technology from a silicon-on-insulator (SOI) wafer through the deep reactive ion etching (DRIE) technique. The integration of theoretical modeling, simulations, and practical fabrication highlights a compelling approach that has the potential for transformative applications in the field of micromanipulation and biological sample handling. Furthermore, we propose a C-shaped structure with a curved beam mechanism to improve the movement provided by the thermal actuators. The design of experiment (DOE) method is used to optimize the geometrical parameters of our proposed device. Analytical modeling based on Castigliano's second theorem and finite element method (FEM) simulations are used to predict the behavior of the symmetrical C-shaped structure; the results are in good agreement. The MEMS-based rotational structures are fabricated on silicon-on-insulator (SOI) wafers using bulk micromachining and deep reactive ion etching (DRIE). The fabricated devices are tested; our findings reveal that our proposed MEMS rotational structure outperforms the symmetrical lancet structure by 28% in terms of delivered displacement. Furthermore, the experimental results agree well with those obtained through numerical analysis.

Microactuators are needed to convert energy into mechanical work at the microscale. Thermal microactuators can be used to produce this needed mechanical work. The purpose of this research was to design, fabricate, and test thermal microactuators for use at the microscale in microelectromechanical systems (MEMS). The microactuators developed were tested to determine the magnitude of their deflection and estimate their force. Five groups of thermal microactuators were designed and tested. All of the groups used the geometrically constrained expansion of various segments to produce their deflection. The first group, Thermal Expansion Devices (TEDs), produced a rotational displacement and had deflections up to 20 µm. The second group, Bi-directional Thermal Expansion Devices (Bi-TEDs) were similar to the TEDs. The difference, as the name implies, was that the Bi-TEDs deflected up to 6 µm in two directions. Thermomechanical In-plane Micromechanisms (TIMs) were the third group tested. They produced a linear motion up to 20 µm. The fourth group was the Rapid Expansion Bi-directional Actuators (REBAs). These microactuators were bi-directional and produced up to 12 µm deflection in each direction. The final group of thermal microactuators was the Joint Actuating Micro-mechanical Expansion Systems (JAMESs). These thermal microactuators rotated pin joints up to 8 degrees. The thermal microactuators studied can be used in a wide variety of applications. They can move ratchets, position valves, move switches, change devices, or make connections. The thermal microactuator groups have their own unique advantages. The TIMS can be tailored for the amount of deflection and output force they produce. This will allow them to replace some microactuator arrays and decrease the space used for actuation. The Bi-TEDs and REBAs are bi-directional and can possibly replace two single direction micro-actuators. The JAMESs can be attached directly to a pin joint of an existing mechanism. These advantages allow these thermal microactuator groups to be used for a wide variety of applications.

This paper presents the design, simulation, assembly and testing of a force-compensated hydrogel-based pH sensor. In the conventional deflection method, a piezoresistive pressure sensor is used as a chemical-mechanical-electronic transducer to measure the volume change of a pH-sensitive hydrogel. In this compensation method, the pH-sensitive hydrogel keeps its volume constant during the whole measuring process, independent of applied pH value. In order to maintain a balanced state, an additional thermal actuator is integrated into the close-loop sensor system with higher precision and faster dynamic response. Poly (N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAAm) with 5 mol% monomer 3-acrylamido propionic acid (AAmPA) is used as the temperature-sensitive hydrogel, while poly (vinyl alcohol) with poly (acrylic acid) (PAA) serves as the pH-sensitive hydrogel. A thermal simulation is introduced to assess the temperature distribution of the whole microsystem, especially the temperature influence on both hydrogels. Following tests are detailed to verify the working functions of a sensor based on pH-sensitive hydrogel and an actuator based on temperature-sensitive hydrogel. A miniaturized prototype is assembled and investigated in deionized water: the response time amounts to about 25 min, just half of that one of a sensor based on the conventional deflection method. The results confirm the applicability of the compensation method to the hydrogel-based sensors.