A Parametric Study on Electro Thermally Actuated Novel Compliant Microgripper

At Micron-level actuation, thermal gripper provides greater forces when compared with electrostatic mode of actuation. To accomplish larger translations at minimal voltages, the Electro thermal actuation is applied. The mechanism of selective non-uniform Joule heating; which helps in thermal expansion of the design owing to restraints. The gripper proposed in this work is analyzed using FEA and is fabricated using Aluminum and stainless steel to achieve quicker response. The in-plane displacement, strain, stress, current density and temperature have been predicted for different magnitudes of current-voltage combination that the gripper sustains. It was found that, micro gripper performs well under 1v giving 60 μm displacement. Parametric sweep was carried out using commercially available FEA software package; COMSOL Multiphysics, to study and asses the outcome of various parameters on the performance of the gripper. It has been observed that the displacement increases with the increase in applied voltage.