A High Force Low Area MEMS Thermal Actuator

Michael J. Sinclair
Microsoft Research
Microsoft Corporation
One Microsoft Way, Redmond, WA 98052
Phone: (425) 703-8343
Fax: (425) 936-7329
Email: sinclair@,microsoft.com

ABSTRACT INTRODUCTION

This paper presents a new type of MEMS (micro-electro-
mechanical systems) actuator consisting of an array of in-
plane micro-fabricated thermal buckle-beam actuators. The
technology used in MEMS actuators is typically magnetic,
electrostatic or thermal. Magnetic actuators may require
special materials in the fabrication process while electrostatic
actuators typically require high voltages, large chip areas and
produce very low forces. Thermal actuators have seen some
use in MEMS applications, the most popular being the
pseudo-bimorph that relies on differential expansion of a cold
and hot arm to cause it to bend in-plane (parallel to the
substrate). These thermal actuators typically generate on the
order of a few micro-Newtons each but can be combined for
larger forces by linking with small tendons. A disadvantage of
this type of actuator is that it moves in an arc where most
desired movements are linear. Also, when combined in an
array, the linking tendons consume much of the energy in
bending them. Also, arrays of these can still occupy a fairly
large chip area.
The electro-thermal actuator described here resembles a
chevron where an array of buckle-beams are packed close
together and link two common anchored arms with a movable
third arm. Arrays can be made within a single released
micromachined layer and generate many mN of force.
Additional actuators can be arrayed with no coupling penalty
and occupy much less area that an equivalent pseudo-bimorph
actuator. Preliminary tests indicate that a 450 x 120 pm array
consumes 240 mW of power, deflection up to 14 pm and can
produce many milli-Newtons. A chip of actuator geometry
variations and different applications has been fabricated and
tested.
Key Words: MEMS, micro-electro-mechanical systems,
thermal actuator, buckle-beam
Most batch fabricated micro-mechanical systems require on-
chip movement of microstructures, either by outside forces
(pressure, acceleration) or put into motion by on-chip
actuators. The desired attributes of an intemal actuator are
small chip real estate, large deflection (>lOpm) and an
electrical requirement compatible with today’s CMOS
circuitry. MEMS actuators are typically used for either one-
time deployment of structures for automatic assembly, an in-
use adjustment such as focusing or tweaking an optical
parameter or constant periodic actuation as in the case of
micro-optic scanners. Electrostatic actuators rely on the
attractive forces between oppositely charged conductors in
close proximity. Magnetic actuation uses the force of
attraction or repulsion between a magnetic field produced by
an electric current and a magnetic material or other
electromagnet. These are typically relegated to laboratory
research, as they usually require exotic fabrications steps.
Electro-thermal actuators rely on the joule heating and
resulting small mechanical expansion of a conductor when a
current is passed through it.
One of the most popular actuators in the MEMS community is
the electrostatic comb drive. This type of actuator can produce
a force of .0059 nN/volt2 per comb-finger height (ym) 113. A
100 finger, 2 pm thick comb drive occupies a chip area of
about 0.15 square mm and will produce an output force of
around 3 pN with a 50 volt drive at negligible current. This
yields an actuator force density of about 20 pN per square
mm. Proportionately higher forces can be achieved with
higher aspect ratio structures. Advantages of the electrostatic
actuator are small actuation energy and relatively high
frequency response. Disadvantages are high drive voltage,
large area and low output force.
Conversely, employing the thermal actuator array proposed by
Reid [2], one can achieve about 450 pN per square mm of
MEMS chip area. The electrical power required is 3.87 m W
per pN. These actuators depend on the differential thermal
expansion of two polysilicon arms to produce a pseudo-
bimorph that deflects in an arc. For an array, these devices
may be coupled to a beam through bending yokes. These
yokes however, consume much of the force output of their

2000 Inter Society Conference

I EEE
0-7803-5912-7/00/$10.0002000 127 on Thermal Phenomena
actuators just in their bending. The coupling of two or more
actuators to a common beam produces a linear movement -
usually desired in MEMS systems. The actuator array
presented here consists of only one thermal expansion beam
per actuator and can produce about 3700 pN per square mm
and 1.53 mW per pN. As structures become more
complicated, especially in the case of free-space optical
devices [3], the one-time deployment required for assembly
becomes more important and reliant on high-force, low-area
actuators. Many of the deployment actuators today are of the
comb drive type and typically occupy many times the area of
the device they are deploying.
DEVICE FABRICATION
The tested actuators were fabricated using the Multi-User
MEMS Processes (MUMPs) [4]. MUMPs is a surface
micromachining process employing a substrate, an insulating
nitride layer and three structural polysilicon layers separated
by two sacrificial oxide layers as shown in Fig. 1, The second
1.Spm 2.Opm 0.5pm
Figure 1. Cross-section view of the MUMPs fabrication
process showing three polysilicon layers with a single anchor
point.
and third polysilicon layers (Poly1 and Poly2) are both
releasable to act as movable structures. A 0.5pm gold layer
can be pattem-deposited on the Poly2 layer for optical
reflection or increased conductivity. The final step performed
is an HF etch of the intervening sacrificial oxide layers and
subsequent drying. As is the problem with many MEMS
devices, stiction can and does occur between released layers.
Movement by the high-force thermal actuators usually releases
the offending structure. This is not always the case in stuck
electrostatic actuators that have to be freed manually.
ACTUATOR DESIGN
The design is based on an in-plane buckle-beam actuator [SI,
[6] as shown in Fig. 2. As a voltage is applied between the
mechanical anchors, ohmic heating of the two half-beams
causes them to expand and ultimately buckle. The resistivity
of polysilicon allows the actuator to operate at voltages and
currents compatible with standard integrated circuitry
(CMOS). The beam is normally designed with a pre-bend
angle a so buckling will have an affinity to move in-plane
128
Figure 2. Single buckle-beam actuator. The applied voltage
causes ohmic heating and expansion between the two fixed
anchors, buckling the beam at the midpoint.
(parallel to the substrate). The actuator displacement d is given
by
d = [ Z2 + 2 ( I ) I' - 1 ~ o s ( a ) ~ - 1 sin(a)
where 1 is the single beam length (buckle-beam half-length)
I' is the elongation of the beam due to thermal
expansion and
a is the pre-bend angle of the beam.
the coefficient of thermal expansion used for polysilicon is
2 . 3 3 1~O-6f'C.
The buckle-beam heating temperature was kept below 800 'C
to prevent self-annealing which can cause irreversible damage.
It should be noted that a buckle-beam can be fabricated out of
either or both of the MUMPs polysilicon released layers
giving a possible actuator thickness of 1.5, 2.0 or 3.5 pm. All
that is required of the fabrication process is that it include at
least one releasable layer with a positive temperature
coefficient of expansion and capable of carrying a current for
ohmic heating.
Arrays of buckle-beam devices can be easily designed by
arranging them in a pattern resembling a chevron as shown in
Fig. 3. A center beam is added to stiffen the midpoint and
allow mechanical coupling of the individual beams as well as
providing a method of transmitting the linear force to another
device. There is no theoretical limit to the number of beams
added as long as the device and conductors can handle the
current and heat, the beams can lose heat rapidly and there is
no cross coupling of heat from one beam to another. Most of
the actuator arrays explored in this paper consist of pairs of
218 pm half-beams in varying number and thickness. This
length was chosen for reasons of published optimum
configuration for other thermal actuators using the MUMPS
process [2].
If more than one actuator array is connected (mechanically
and electrically) to a single micro-structure, care must be
taken to eliminate any common mode currents that arise when
the actuators are excited differently, Fig. 4 shows an
2000 Inter Society Conference
on Thermal Phenomena

Force Work Coupling
Beam
Figure 3. An array of four buckle-beam actuators with the
addition of a coupling beam. The output force is linear - four
times that of a single actuator,
Force
I 1 I
Figure 4. Alternative connection methods to minimize cross
currents. If more than one actuator array is connected to a
microstructure, the common-mode current must be minimized
or damage could result.
alternative method of electrical connection to the buckle-beam
array that can help eliminate this problem. The current in Fig.
3 passes from one anchor to the other, placing the center-
coipling beam at the half-resistanceholtagk point. The current
shown in Fig. 4 is fed from both anchors toward the coupling
beam, which is at ground or a common mode potential. This
alternate connection could also be used to cause unequal
currents to flow in both halves of the array, moving the center
coupling beam a small distance either way and orthogonal to
the primary displacement direction. This action is presently
being explored in an application where the smaller
displacement can be used to accurately position an external
structure clamped by the larger displacement.
129
FORCE AND DEFLECTION MEASUREMENT
A CAD image for a typical actuator is shown in Fig. 5 with a
buckle-beam cross-section shown in Fig. 6 . In this case, linear
capture bearings were added to prevent the center coupling
beam from deflecting or buckling out-of-plane. As the pre-bias
angle is usually very small, on the order of a fraction of a
degree, it was thought that there would be a tendency for the
beams to buckle away from the substrate. This was not the
case in most observed tests, unless the center beam was
constrained to move in the desired direction. In test cases
Electrical
2 x 2 x 200 nm Capture connection
polysilicon beam. \
Bending beam \Calibrated stops to
for force measurment truncate bending bemm
Figure 5 . CAD image of a typical chevron actuator array. Note
the capture bearings used to prevent the buckle-beams from
deflecting out-of-plane.
2x2 um polysilicon
buckle beam Coupling
beam
\I
Anchor
/
Dimple Nitride Substrate -
Figure 6. Cross-section view of the actuator array of Fig. 5 .
Note the dimple bearing used to reduce stiction.
where the pre-bias angle was zero, most actuators attempted to
buckle out-of-plane. Also shown in Fig. 5 is the vernier used
to measure the actuator’s deflection and has a resolution of
about 0.5 pm. Note also the force measuring bending-beam
and the calibrated backing structure. In operation, the actuator
first moves, un-forced, by 2 pm where it then comes in contact
with the force measurement beam. Using a micromanipulator
probe, one can mechanically “short out” a section of the
bending-beam in 4 pm increments, resulting in a stiffer or
higher applied force on the actuator. Unfortunately, the beam
wasn’t stiff enough as most actuators exceeded expectations in
output force and often broke the force bending-beam. Data
had to be gathered from actuators in which a number of buckle
beams were physically removed to reduce the force to a
2000 Inter Society Conference
on Thermal Phenomena
measurable quantity. The full array response can be predicted
as the forces from each buckle-beam add linearly.
A feature used and shown in Fig. 6 is a dimple bearing
available in the MUMPs process. As was stated earlier,
stiction can prevent structures from moving where they are in
contact with the nitride layer. 0.5 pm dimples help reduce the
surface area of released polysilicon structures that would
normally have contact with the nitride layer. Fig. 7 is a
photomicrograph of the actuator depicted in Fig. 5.
Figure 7. Photomicrograph of a chevron actuator array. The
probe at the bottom is used to shorten the force-measuring
beam to 60 pm
The actuator is deflected about 7 pm. A probe is shown
shortening the 130 pm force beam to 60 pm. By measuring
the deflection of the bending-beam, the applied force can be
computed. Note that the applied force is not the same as the
total force capability of the actuator. For small deflections of
the force beam, the applied force is calculated [2]
F = Etdw3
4 i3
where F = applied force
-
E = Young’s modulus 160 Gpa [7]
t = beam thickness in pm
w = beam width in pm
1 =beam length in pm
TEST RESULTS
Variations in actuator geometry design were explored in an
attempt to discover optimal actuator configuration. Tested
values included pre-bend angle, actuator thickness, beam
length, excitation power, and number of beams per array.
Measurements were made by placing the released MUMPs die
on a probe station. Microprobes were used to connect to the
chip by contacting the bonding pads designed in the devices.
A finction generator and amplifier were used as the excitation
source with an oscilloscope monitoring the terminal voltage.
Observations were made through the probe station’s
microscope. In operation, a probe was positioned against the
force measuring bending-beam at the required length for the
130
applied force. A low frequency square wave excitation signal
was then applied to the actuator through its connection pads
and deflection noted by observing the vernier with a
microscope.
The actuators exhibited an output force proportional to the
number of buckle-beams, actuator layer thickness and pre-
bend angle. The measured unforced deflection was dependent
on actuation voltage, beam length and pre-bend angle and not
on actuator thickness or number of beam-pairs. The resistance
was predictably proportional to the beam length and inversely
proportional to the beam thickness and number of beams per
array.
A graph of actuator deflection for various pre-bend angles is
shown in Fig. 8. The data was taken from a number of 2 pm
thick structures at two different applied forces by selecting
force beam lengths of 130 and 60 pm. It can be seen (and
predicted) that actuators with a small pre-bend angle (<OS
degrees) exhibited little or no deflection and hence little output
force. For very small pre-bend angles, the actuator sometimes
refused to move in-plane and, instead, buckled out-of-plane.
Predictably, with larger pre-bend angles, the deflection was
reduced but the available force increased. Fig. 8 also indicates
that, for a 60 pm force beam, the.optima1 pre-bend is around 1
! i
1
-130 um force
beam
-60 um force
beam
0 1 2 3
Pre-bend Angle (degrees)
Figure 8. Deflection distance vs. pre-bend angle results for
2.0 pm thick polysilicon actuators. Two different force-
measuring beam lengths were used.
degree for maximum deflection, Fig. 9 is a graph of deflection
for a series of 2 pm actuators with various pre-bend and
excitation voltages. It indicates that the actuators exhibit a
linear response when the excitation is above 2 volts. The slope
of the curves indicates the higher the pre-bend angle, the lower
the deflection.
Deflection response was measured in all actuators to be
around 2KHz. This was measured by increasing the excitation
frequency until the measured deflection fell to half the
2000 Inter Society Conference
on Thermal Phenomena
 I I APPLICATION

I Deflection vs Actuation Voltage for Actuators with

Different Pre-bend Angles
I
II The photomicrograph in Fig. 10 is an example of a gear motor
powered by two actuator arrays. in this application, the
1 ’ 2 1 I I *pre-bend=.524
actuators are connected similarly to that shown in Fig. 4 in
deg
order to reduce the common mode current when driving the
actuators from different sources. The actuators were excited in
-pre-bend=l.O5 phase quadrature. This phase difference causes the linear
deg drive gear to move in a circular motion, meshing about half of
the time with the larger circular gear. Square wave signals
+pre-bend=1.31 1 such as the output from CMOS digital circuitry may also be
deg used to actuate this motor. If the amplitude is adjusted
properly, the drive gear will advance the circular gear by one
-pre-bend=l.83 tooth for each four-phase period. The result is similar to a
four-phase stepper motor, though only one phase produces
gear drive. The motor is capable of speeds around 1,600 rpm.
Another application is a linear rack drive where the actuators
are used to advance a beam through friction and can be used to
deploy MEMS out-of-plane devices such as those used in free-

I o
I
5
Actuation (volts)
IC space optical systems.

Figure 9. Actuator deflection vs. excitation voltage. All

actuators appear to be linear for excitations greater than 2
volts. The slope is pre-bend angle dependent.

maximum amplitude. Preliminary tests indicate that an order

of magnitude increase in usable actuation frequency can be
realized by using a mechanically high-Q structure operating at
resonance.

CONCLUSIONS

These actuators can be used almost anywhere MEMS linear

motion is required. They produce high force though consume
considerable power. The small deflection (-10 Fm) can be
extended through leverage, gearing or clutcWfriction drive. As
was stated previously, the force output exceeded expectations,
as the force bending-beam was not designed strong enough. In
order to obtain a meaningful force measurement, all but two
buckle-beams were removed from a 2 pactuator with a pre-
bend of 1.OS degrees. The modified actuator was able to bend
a 68 pm force-measuring beam by 3 p.This corresponds to
a force of about 20 pN or 5 pN per single beam (one half of a
buckle-beam). This value is equivalent to the force obtained
from a single pseudo bi-morph actuator described by Reid, et.
al. [2]. Using the technique described here, a buckle-beam
actuator array consisting of 48 two pm thick beams would
have an output force of around 240 pN and occupy an area of
65,OO sq. pm. This same force would require an array of
pseudo bi-morph devices occupying 533,000 sq. pm of chip
real estate or 12,000,000 sq. pm for an electrostatic actuator Figure 10. Photomicrograph of a thermally actuated gear
array. Future work will consist of exploring other geometry motor. The actuators are connected in a common mode
variations of these actuators such as longer beam lengths, configuration and excited with two sources in phase
beam-to-beam spacing and methods to avoid out-of-plane quadrature that causes the drive gear to move in a circular
buckling. Applications will include deployment systems for pattern.
optical devices, rotary motion, mirror scanners and other
display devices.

2000 Inter Society Conference

131 on Thermal Phenomena
 BIBLIOGRAPHY
[I] W. YE, S. Mukherjee, N. MacDonald, “Optimal Shape
Design of an Electrostatic Comb Drive in Micro-Electro-
Mechanical Systems,” NSF research report under grant ECS-
9321508.
[2] J. Reid, V. Bright, J. Comtois, “Force Measurements of a
Polysilicon Thermal Micro-Actuator, ” Proc. SPIE, vol. 2882,
pp. 296-306, 1997.
131 M. Wu, “Micromachining for Optical and Optoelectronic
Systems, Proc. IEEE, vol. 85, no. 1 1 , pp. 1833-1856, Nov.
”
1977.
132
[4] D. Koester, R. Mahedevan, A. Shishkoff, and K. Marcus,
“MUMPS Design Handbook,” rev. 4 , Cronos Integrated
Microsystems, 302 1 Comwallis Rd, Research Triangle Park,
NC 27709, httr,://www.memsrus,com/cronos/MUMPs.pdf.,
May 1999.
[ 5 ] L. Que, J. Park, and Y. Gianchandani, “Bent-Beam
Electro-Thermal Actuators for High Force Applications,”
IEEE MEMS ’99Conference, Orlando, FL, pp. 31-36, 1999.
[6] R. Cragunand and L. Howell, “Linear Thennomechanical
Microactuators,” MEMS 1999, vol. I , Nashville, TN. pp. 181-
188, Nov., 1999.
[7] “MEMS Material Database,” MEMS Clearinghouse,
htt~:/!nicins.isi.cdu/mcms/matcrials/indclt.html.
2000 Inter Society Conference
on Thermal Phenomena