Underlying physics of thermal actuation in composite MEMS

Integrated micro- and nano-electromechanical (N/MEMS) sensor and actuator technology has become increasingly important to any applications with parallel processes, which clearly provide advantages in fields such as e.g. high-speed imaging and precision metrology of large substrates. Although micro-fabrication processes for integrated technology are well-established, there remain several fundamental research questions regarding optimized design parameters for an improved performance of sensors and actuators. In this work we investigate the underlying physics of a thermal actuator of a composite MEMS structure for a selected range of design parameters such as e.g. layer thicknesses, number of layers, as well as material properties. We derive and present a one-dimensional heat conduction model of an M-layered composite slab and investigate the heat transfer across three layers using Green’s function. The work, although entirely theoretical here, finds direct meaning and implementation in our ongoing collaborative work on MEMS arrays for Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM).