Non-Linear Displacement Mechanisms of Thermally Actuated MEMS Chevron

Non-linearity in actuation of MEMS devices are essential in many applications. Previously, we presented the design and modeling of a NanoThermoMechanical AND logic gate, which is one of the building blocks of thermal computing (i.e., data processing based on heat instead of electricity). The gate is...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of microelectromechanical systems 2020-04, Vol.29 (2), p.255-259
Main Authors: Hamed, Ahmed, Ndao, Sidy
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Actuation
Actuators
Amplification
Computational modeling
Data processing
Heating systems
Linearity
Logic circuits
Logic gates
Microelectromechanical systems
Micromechanical devices
near-field radiation
non-linear expansion
Nonlinearity
Silicon
Thermal actuators
thermal computing
Thermal expansion
Thermal radiation
V-shaped chevron beams
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Summary:Non-linearity in actuation of MEMS devices are essential in many applications. Previously, we presented the design and modeling of a NanoThermoMechanical AND logic gate, which is one of the building blocks of thermal computing (i.e., data processing based on heat instead of electricity). The gate is achieved through the coupling between near-field thermal radiation and MEMS thermal actuation. In the process, we developed two novel non-linear displacement mechanism of thermally actuated microstructure silicon V-shaped chevron beams which were required to achieve the desired thermal AND gate operation. In this work, we introduce the design, fabrication, and characterization of the two non-linear mechanisms using novel and ingenious chevron mechanisms consisting of spring-assisted reduction and cascading chevrons amplification for the reducing and the amplification mechanisms, respectively. The results show non-linearity can be achieved successfully through demonstrated and easy-to-manufacture chevron mechanisms. [2019-0233]
ISSN:1057-7157
1941-0158
DOI:10.1109/JMEMS.2020.2970996