폴리실리콘 마이크로 액츄에이터의 열구동 특성분석

Characterization of thermally driven polysilicon micro actuator

A thermally driven polysilicon micro actuator has been fabricated using surface micromachining techniques. It consists of P-doped polysilicon as a structural layer and TEOS (tetracthylorthosilicate) as a sacrificial layer. The polysilicon was annealed for the relaxation of residual stress which is the main cause to its deformation such as bending and buckling. And the newly developed HF VPE (vapor phase etching) process was also used as an effective release method for the elimination of sacrificial TEOS layer. The thickneas of polysilicon is $2{\mu}m$ and the lengths of active and passive polysilicon cantilevers are $500{\mu}m$ and $260{\mu}m$, respectively. The actuation is incurred by die thermal expansion due to the current flow in the active polysilicon cantilever, which motion is amplified by lever mechanism. The moving distance of polysilicon micro actuator was experimentally conformed as large as $21{\mu}m$ at the input voltage level of 10V and 50Hz square wave. The actuating characteristics are investigated by simulating the phenomena of heat transfer and thermal expansion in the polysilicon layer. The displacement of actuator is analyzed to be proportional to the square of input voltage. These micro actuator technology can be utilized for the fabrication of MEMS (microelectromechanical system) such as micro relay, which requires large displacement or contact force but relatively slow response.