This paper presents a swirl-shaped microfeatured ionic polymer-metal composite (IPMC) actuator. A novel micromachining process was developed to fabricate an array of IPMC actuators on a glass substrate and to ensure that no shortcircuits occur between the electrodes of the actuator. We demonstrated a microfluidic scheme in which surface tension was used to construct swirl-shaped planar IPMC dev...

We present a simulation and experimental investigation of bi-directional tunable in-plane clamped–guided arch microbeam resonators. Tensile and compressive axial forces are generated from a bi-directional electrostatic actuator, which modulates the microbeam stiffness, and hence changes its natural frequency to lower or higher values from its as-fabricated value. Several devices of various anch...

An iris-type variable aperture fabricated using microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) technology is described. The device contains four shutter blades, which are each driven by a separate actuator and translated synchronously to create a square aperture. Devices based on buckling mode electrothermal actuators and formed by deep reactive ion etching of bonded silicon-on-insulator are demonstrate...

A novel model is described for predicting the static behavior of a piezoelectric cantilever actuator with an arbitrary configuration of elastic and piezoelectric layers. The model is compared to deflection measurements obtained from 500m-long ZnO cantilever actuators fabricated by surface micromachining. Modeled and experimental results demonstrate the utility of the model for optimizing device...

An electrostatic actuator and mechanical-amplifier (MA) device has been designed and fabricated to study fatigue properties of low-stress LPCVD silicon nitride thin films. The device consists of two resonators connected serially with a common torsion bar. When pumping electrostatic energy into the first resonator, the energy is transferred to the second resonator via the common torsion bar. The...

This paper describes a new class of flight control actuators using Post-Buckled Precompressed (PBP) piezoelectric elements. These actuators are designed to produce significantly higher deflection and force levels than conventional piezoelectric actuator elements. Classical laminate plate theory (CLPT) models are shown to work very well in capturing the behavior of the free, unloaded elements. A...

Multi-material 3D printing has created new opportunities for fabricating deployable structures. We design reversible, deployable structures that are fabricated flat, have defined load bearing capacity, and multiple, predictable activated geometries. These structures are designed with a hierarchical framework where the proposed bistable actuator serves as the base building block. The actuator is...