An Aluminum Electro-Thermally Actuated Micro-Tweezer: Manufacturing and Characterization

In this paper, we present the investigations of an aluminum micro-tweezer designed for micromanipulation applications. It includes design, simulation, fabrication, characterizations, and experimental measurements. Electro-thermo-mechanical FEM-based simulations using COMSOL Multiphysics were performed to describe the behavior of the micro-electro-mechanical system (MEMS) device. The micro-tweezers were fabricated in aluminum, as structural material, by surface micromachining processes. Experimental measurements were performed and compared with the simulation results. A micromanipulation experiment was performed using titanium microbeads from 10–30 µm to confirm the performance of the micro-tweezer. This study serves as further research regarding the using of aluminum as structural material for MEMS devices designated for pick-and-place operations.