Microactuation of Suspended MEMS Beams

This study presents the design, implementation, and testing of microelectromechanical system (MEMS)-based actuators. The concepts of electrostatic and thermal microactuation are discussed. Geometrically identical fixed-fixed microbeams were fabricated to compare quantitatively the two different actuation principles. The beams are implemented with Micralyne generalized MEMS (MicraGEM) technology, a silicon-on-insulator (SOI)-based microfabrication process.