Mechanical Engineering Commons^™

Multi-Physics Modeling And Calibration For Self-Sensing Of Thermomechanical In-Plane Microactuators, Kendall B. Teichert

Theses and Dissertations

As technology advances and engineering capabilities improve, more research has focused on microscopic possibilities. Microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) is one area that has received much attention recently. Within MEMS much research has focused on sensing and actuation. This thesis presents work on a particular actuator of interest, the thermomechanical in-plane microactuator (TIM). Recent work has shown the possibility of a novel approach of sensing mechanical outputs of the TIM without ancillary sensors. This sensing approach exploits the piezoresistive property of silicon. However, to implement this approach a full model of the TIM would need to be obtained to describe the physics …