1. Thermal Actuators

2. ECE 5320 Mechatronics Assignment 1: Literature Survey on Sensors and Actuators
Topic: Thermal Actuators
Prepared by: McLain L. Cox
Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Utah State University
9 March 2004

3. Outline Reference List To Explore Further Intro on MEMS
How MEMS is useful
How MEMS is built
Thermal Actuators
Use in Optics

4. References www.rl.af.mildiv/IFB/techtrans/datasheets/MEMS.html
www-g.eng.cam.ac.uk/edm/research/mems/mems.html

5. To Explore Further
Not much is out there on Thermal Actuators, but it is most commonly associated with MEMS. To find more information, look up as much as possible on MEMS. Thermal Actuators should be included there.

6. What is a Thermal Actuator
Thermal actuators are a part of the newest rage, MEMS
They are tiny actuators that move according to the heat that is given to them

7. What is MEMS Micro Electro- Mechanical System
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8. More on MEMS MEMS are on a micrometer scale
They are proving very useful to nanotechnology
They consist of electrical and non-electrical components i.e. Mechanical, biochemical, and Optical
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9. More on MEMS
compact information products which sense, process, store, and communicate information
enables the integration of digital, analog/RF, mechanical, and fluidic technologies all on a single silicon substrate in order to create micro-structures for sensing, actuating, control and data storage
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10. Some MEMS examples personal digital assistants
smart munitions and decoys
wireless communicators
distributed sensor systems
inkjet print heads
pressure sensors
accelerometers in airbags
biochemical sensors
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11. The beauty of MEMS
MEMS share the attributes of being size, weight, and cost driven; incorporate both digital and analog/RF functions; and may involve a limited amount of precision electro-mechanical assembly
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12. The Military uses MEMS for gathering information
Information exploitation is accomplished through interconnecting data processing, displays, batteries, mass storage, and input/output devices using advance telemetry interfaces. This class of system represents a large fraction of future DoD and commercial products. The integration of microdevices of a non-transistor nature in a monolithic system are now being called integrated microdevices
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13. How is MEMS created fabricated by surface micromachining
built on same substrate as the chip
polycrystalline silicon is replaced by poly-SiGe
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14. More on the creation of MEMS
While the electronics are fabricated using integrated circuit (IC) process sequences (e.g., CMOS, Bipolar, or BICMOS processes), the micromechanical components are fabricated using compatible "micromachining" processes that selectively etch away parts of the silicon wafer or add new structural layers to form the mechanical and electromechanical devices
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15. MEMS as smart microsystems
Microelectronic integrated circuits can be thought of as the "brains" of a system and MEMS augments this decision-making capability with "eyes" and "arms", to allow microsystems to sense and control the environment
Sensors gather information from the environment through measuring mechanical, thermal, biological, chemical, optical, and magnetic phenomena
The electronics process the information derived from the sensors and through some decision making capability direct the actuators to respond by moving, positioning, regulating, pumping, and filtering, thereby controlling the environment for some desired outcome or purpose
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16. How do Thermal Actuators fit in
One component of MEMS is Thermal Actuators
This one moves the bottom panel as it is heated and cooled.
Source www-g.eng.cam.ac.uk/edm/research/mems/mems.html

17. Thermal Actuators
This shows a horizontal thermal actuator at work. It is similar to the actuator in the previous slide.
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18. Thermal Actuators
Here is a vertical one. Instead of moving horizontally, it moves vertically.
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19. More on how Thermal Actuators work
When a voltage is applied to the terminals, current flows through the device. However, because of the different widths, the current density is unequal in the two arms. This leads to a different rate of Joule heating in the two arms, and thus to different amounts of thermal expansion. The thin arm is often referred to as the hot arm, and the wide arm is often referred to as the cold arm.
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20. Thermal actuators
Vertical actuators like this, are used in applications, like closing a switch.
Other applications are optics. This figure shows a vertical thermal actuator with integrated micromirror. Application of a current to the actuator arm produces vertical motion of the mirror, which can either reflect an optical beam or allow it to be transmitted.
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21. MEMS in optics
he greatest promise of microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) lies in the ability to produce mechanical motion on a small scale. Such devices are typically low power and fast, taking advantage of such microscale phenomenon as strong electrostatic forces and rapid thermal responses. Although MEMS-based sensors have been widely deployed, few MEMS-based actuators have achieved more than laboratory-level development due to the technical challenges they present. The market for such devices is growing rapidly, especially for optical and electronic applications.
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22. Optics
The explosive growth of data traffic, such as the Internet, has produced a pressing need for large-capacity optical networks. Optical switches are now in high demand in the telecommunications industry for their ability to reconfigure an optical network for traffic management or circuit protection without having to resort to low-bandwidth, protocol-dependent, opto-electronic conversions. To be widely deployed, such switches must be small, low cost, batch fabricated, and have a high port count. A MEMS-based optical switch is well suited to addressing these requirements.
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23. Micro-optical systems
Imagine a silicon chip with thousands of microscopic mirrors working in unison, enabling the all optical network and removing the bottlenecks from the global telecommunications infrastructure.
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24. Micro-optical systems
The explosive growth of data traffic, such as the Internet, has produced a pressing need for large-capacity optical networks. Optical switches are now in high demand in the telecommunications industry for their ability to reconfigure an optical network for traffic management or circuit protection without having to resort to low-bandwidth, protocol-dependent, opto-electronic conversions. To be widely deployed, such switches must be small, low cost, batch fabricated, and have a high port count. A MEMS-based optical switch is well suited to addressing these requirements.
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