Development, modeling and deflection analysis of hybrid micro actuator with integrated thermal and piezoelectric actuation

Micro actuators are irreplaceable part of motion control in minimized systems. The current study presents an analytical model for a new Hybrid Thermo Piezoelectric micro actuator based on the combination of piezoelectric and thermal actuation mechanisms. The micro actuator structure is a double PZT cantilever beam consisting of two arms with different lengths. The presented micro actuator uses the structure of electrothermal micro actuator in which polysilicon material is replaced by PZT. Also the voltage and poling directions are considered in the lengthwise of PZT beams. As a result, the piezoelectric actuation mechanism is based on d ₃₃ strain coefficient. The tip deflection of micro actuator is obtained using Timoshenko beam theory. Analytical results are compared with FEM results along with other reported results in the literature. The effects of geometrical parameters and PZT material constants on actuator tip deflection are studied to provide an efficient optimization of HTP micro actuator.