comprehensive thermal modeling of electrothermoelastic microstructures综合热建模electrothermoelastic微观结构.pdfVIP

Actuators 2012, 1, 21-35; doi:10.3390/act1010021 OPEN ACCESS actuators ISSN 2076-0825 /journal/actuators Article Comprehensive Thermal Modeling of ElectroThermoElastic Microstructures Mohammad Mayyas The University of Texas at Arlington Research Institute, Fort Worth, TX 76118, USA; E-Mail: mmayyas@; Tel.: +1-817-272-5887; Fax: +1-817-272-5952 Received: 3 May 2012; in revised form: 16 August 2012 / Accepted: 17 August 2012 / Published: 24 August 2012 Abstract: Bent and folded beam configurations have been popularly used in electrothermoelastic (E-T) actuation. This paper introduces new designs of thermal end-effector with micro-grasping and micro-heating capabilities. We obtained analytical models for all possible steady state temperature responses of suspended and overhanging microstructures that constitute bent beam, folded beam, and combined actuators. Generally, the thermal response of E-T microstructures is sensitive to the boundary conditions, particularly for high power input. Thermal models have predicted the failure due to melting, which is the most common reason for failure of E-T devices, and it often occurs in the longest and the thinnest microstructure. Keywords: electrothermal modeling; MEMS; micro grasper; end-effector 1. Introduction Miniaturized end-effectors or “Microgrippers” located at the end of a robotic arm are primarily designed b