OptimizedDesign of a V- beam Micro Electrothermal Actuator by Using Particle Swarm optimization

Abstract

A variety of the surface micromachined electrothermal microactuators have been widely applied in various areas due to the high force provided at a relatively low input voltage. A new optimized V-beam electrothermal micro actuator is proposed for providing angular displacement & output force. The design concept and preliminary simulation results of V-beam actuators are presented in this research. Due to its optimized structural design, this V-beam actuator capable of generating maximum angular displacement, output force and exhibits good characteristics with high-level performance for industrial applications. This research employs particle swarm optimization method to search efficiently the optimal V-beam electrothermal micro actuator parameters of MEMS systems, as represented by the entropy generation rate. The proposed approach had superior features, including easy implementation, stable convergence characteristic, and good computational efficiency. In this study, we use the proposed method to design v- beam width, thickness, length, gap between beam and substrate and current density to obtain minimum entropy generation rate, the results show that the output force can be increase about 40% compare to recent study.