Abstract
An actuator is a component of the Micro-Electro-Mechanical System (MEMS). The ways to drive actuators include electrostatic driving, piezoelectricity driving, electromagnetic driving, electro-thermal driving and shape memory alloy. Electro-thermal actuators have such advantages as lower input voltage needed, integrated-circuit manufacturing technology used. Furthermore, both types of actuators can be arrayed to increase its displacement and output force. Therefore, the actuators have sizable development space in application We choose curve-beam as the structure, because the structure can avoid horizontal buckle in the V-type actuators. A finite element software (ANSYS) was used to solve the 3D electro-thermo-mechanical problems. We compute the optimum dimension that has the maximum displacement and minimum stress. The optimum structure of actuator is 5μm wide and 3,000μm in radius. The structure materials include Silicon Substrate, Aluminum Pad and Polysilicon. The analysis processes are based on thermodynamics, so we can compute the accurate heat transfer coefficient and get accurate temperature distribution by using ANSYS. Then we can obtain accurate mechanical behaviors, and compare them with the literature. Its error is under 10%.