This paper presents the successful demonstration of a large-stroke, high-precision inchworm microactuator. The actuator is capable of zero-power latching, or forcibly maintaining its position by using pre-stressed spring load. The actuator is driven by a combination of a PZT-stack actuator unit for slider thrust and electrostatic comb-drive units for slider grip. Incremental step size is precis...

This paper introduces a Z-shaped thermal microactuator for in-plane motion, which could be complementary to the well-established comb drives and V-shaped thermal actuators. The Z-shaped actuators share many features in common with the V-shaped ones, but offer certain advantages such as smaller feature size and larger displacement. They also offer a large range of stiffness and output force that...

In order to satisfy the demand for high functionality of future microdevices, research on new concepts multistable microactuators with enlarged working ranges becomes increasingly important. A challenge design such actuators lies in overcoming mechanical connections moved object, which limit its deflection angle or traveling distance. Although numerous approaches have already been proposed solv...

Closed form analytical equations are important tools for predicting and optimizing the behavior of a piezoelectric microactuator for micropump applications. However, there is no reliable analytical solution to date to analyze the behavior of a circular piezoelectric microactuator for a valveless micropump. In this paper, a linear strain distribution is assumed across the thickness of the passiv...