Parallel in-Plane Electrothermal Actuators

This letter reports a novel electrothermal actuator with large in-plane displacement designed for MEMS-based pitch-tunable diffraction grating (MPDG) for beam steering applications. The actuator consists of two sets of parallel electrothermal beams that pull and push a lever to produce large in-plane displacement. The actuator has been simulated, fabricated and tested. The results show that the actuator generates a large in-plane displacement of $\mathrm {177 ~\mu \text {m} }$ at a driving voltage of $\mathrm {6 \text {V}}$ consuming $\mathrm {115.32 \text {m} \text {W} }$ with minimal out-of-plane movement. By doubling the number of parallel electrothermal beams, the actuator uniquely reduces power consumption while increasing force generated, resulting in large in-plane displacement. [2024-0001]