Design and Simulation of Electrothermally Actuated Silicon Microgripper

Microgrippers find their importance in the field micro assembly and nano assembly in semiconductor electronics. The crucial features to be examined throughout the design of the microgrippers are large displacement, low temperature and low power. By increasing the length of cold arm, extended arm and the flexure, the displacement of the device can be surpassed. A microgripper based on Electro-Thermal Actuators (ETA) that can produce larger displacement is presented. This microgripper is of open type in which arms have an initial open gap of 14μm. The maximum displacement of each arm is 64μm for the applied voltage of 24V. COMSOL MULTIPHYSICS v4.3b Software is used as a simulation tool. This design of microgripper is utilized for the movement of optical components and for driving gears of motors.