A tip-tilt-piston electrothermal micromirror array with integrated position sensors.

A tip-tilt-piston 3 × 3 electrothermal micromirror array (MMA) integrated with temperature field-based position sensors is designed and fabricated in this work. The size of the individual octagonal mirror plates is as large as 1.6 mm × 1.

A microgripper based on electrothermal Al-SiO bimorphs.

Microgrippers are essential for assembly and manipulation at the micro- and nano-scales, facilitating important applications in microelectronics, MEMS, and biomedical engineering. To guarantee the safe handling of delicate materials and micro-objects, a microgripper needs to be designed to operate with exceptional precision, rapid response, user-friendly operation, strong reliability, and low power consumption. In this study, we develop an electrothermal actuated microgripper with Al-SiO bimorphs as the primary structural element.

A Large-Scan-Range Electrothermal Micromirror Integrated with Thermal Convection-Based Position Sensors.

This paper presents the design, simulation, fabrication, and characterization of a novel large-scan-range electrothermal micromirror integrated with a pair of position sensors. Note that the micromirror and the sensors can be manufactured within a single MEMS process flow. Thanks to the precise control of the fabrication of the grid-based large-size Al/SiO bimorph actuators, the maximum piston displacement and optical scan angle of the micromirror reach 370 μm and 36° at only 6 Vdc, respectively.