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Design and Fabrication of MEMS Piezoelectric Rotational Actuators

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 February 2011

Danny Gee
Affiliation:
danny.gee@us.army.mil, U.S. Army Research Laboratory, Adelphi, Maryland, United States
Wayne Churaman
Affiliation:
wayne.churaman@arl.army.mil, U.S. Army Research Laboratory, Adelphi, Maryland, United States
Luke Currano
Affiliation:
LCurrano@arl.army.mil, U.S. Army Research Laboratory, Adelphi, Maryland, United States
Eugene Zakar
Affiliation:
ezakar@arl.army.mil, U.S. Army Research Laboratory, Adelphi, Maryland, United States
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Abstract

As Microelectromechanical Systems (MEMS) continue to mature and increase in design complexity, the need to exploit rotation in MEMS devices has become more apparent. An in-plane piezoelectric rotational actuator is proposed that provides free deflections on the order of 1.5° with applied biases of less than 35V and nanoampere currents. Moments up to 6×10−8 N·m, corresponding to forces of 125 μN, were measured using MEMS cantilever springs. The actuator utilizes the low-power, high-force characteristics of lead zirconate titanate and a coupled, dual offset-beam design to provide efficient rotational displacement. The resulting power consumption is three orders of magnitude less than current electrothermal rotational designs.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2009

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References

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