Simulation and characterization of MEMS piezoelectric thermal actuator

Abstract

The development of low cost MEMS devices has been the main focus in recent years. This leads to discovery of MEMS materials and suitable devices. Magnetostatic and electrostatic actuators produce relatively small forces; therefore it is hard to achieve large displacement. Therefore there is a need to achieve larger displacement by using different types of materials. One of the device is thermal actuator which is operates when voltage is applied. This project focuses on the materials that used to simulate the two different designs. The materials that used in this project are called piezoelectric materials or smart materials. When the voltage is applied on the thermal actuator, there will be a mechanical movement which is operates the actuator based on the thermal energy. There are three analysis were done on the materials to observe the difference in results. The nodal displacement, electric field, and stress tensor of thermal actuator was investigated by using two different types of designs. Different materials show different results due to different material properties. The materials that used in this project are Zinc Oxide, PZT-4 and PZT-5.