An in-plane thermal unimorph using confined polymers

Powerful polymeric thermal microactuator with embedded silicon microstructure

A powerful and effective design of a polymeric thermal microactuator is presented. The design has SU-8 epoxy layers filled and bonded in a meandering silicon (Si) microstructure. The silicon microstructure reinforces the SU-8 layers by lateral restraint. It also improves the transverse thermal expansion coefficient and heat transfer for the...

Polymer constraint effect for electrothermal bimorph microactuators

The authors report on the analysis of the polymer constraint effect and its use for a micromachined electrothermal bimorph actuator. The actuated displacement is enhanced due to the polymer constraint effect. Both the thermal expansion and apparent Young’s modulus of the constrained polymer blocks are significantly improved, compared with the no...

Finite element modelling and experimental characterization of an electro-thermally actuated silicon-polymer micro gripper