Microactuator

A microactuator is a microscopic servomechanism that supplies and transmits a measured amount of energy for the operation of another mechanism or system. As a general actuator, following standards have to be met:

• Large travel
• High precision
• Fast switching
• Low power consumption
• Power free force sustainability

For microactuator, there are two in addition

• Microstructurability
• Integrability

Principle of microactuators

The basic principle can be described as the expression for mechanical work
${\displaystyle W={\overrightarrow {F}}\cdot \Delta {\overrightarrow {r}}}$
since an actuator is to manipulate positions and therefore force is needed. For different kind of microactuators, different physical principles are applied.

Classes of microactuators

Sources:^[1][2][3][4]

• Electrostatic
• Electromagnetic
• Piezoelectric
• Fluid
• Thermal

See also

• Newton's laws
• Euler–Bernoulli beam equation
• Electrostatics
• Electromagnetism
• Piezoelectricity
• Microfluidics
• Sensors
• Nanotube nanomotor

References

1. Fujita, Hiroyuki; Toshiyoshi, Hiroshi (1998). "Micro actuators and their applications". Microelectronics Journal. 29 (9): 637–640. doi:10.1016/S0026-2692(98)00027-5.
2. Wood, D.; Burdess, J. S.; Harris, A. J. (1996). "Actuators and their mechanisms in microengineering". IEE Colloquium on Actuator Technology: Current Practice and New Developments (Digest No: 1996/110): 7/1–7/3. doi:10.1049/ic:19960698.
3. Ma, Z. C.; Fan, J.; Wang, H.; Chen, W.; Yang, G. Z.; Han, B. (2023). "Microfluidic Approaches for Microactuators: From Fabrication, Actuation, to Functionalization". Small. 19 (22). doi:10.1002/smll.202300469. PMID 36855777.
4. Yoshida, K.; Park, J. H.; Yano, H.; Yokota, S.; Yun, S. (2005). "Study of Valve-Integrated Microactuator Using Homogeneous Electro-Rheological Fluid" (PDF). Sensors and Materials. 17 (3): 97–112.