Experimental study of the characteristics of novel microactuator based on optothermal expansion

A novel asymmetric optothermal microactuator was developed. A microactuator of 750μm length was machined by an excimer laser micromachining system using single layer material. It had an asymmetric structure consisting of two thin expansion arms with different widths. A laser diode (660nm) was employed as the external power source to activate the microactuator. We introduced a charge coupled device (CCD)-combined optical microscope and a computer system to observe and capture the microactuator's deflection and vibration. Experiments have been carried out to check the feasibility of deflection, and the data of deflection have been measured under different laser power as well as under different pulse frequency. The results show that the actuator can practically generate an obvious lateral deflection or vibration, the maximum could be larger than 20μm. Moreover, the deflection status of the microactuator could be controlled wirelessly or remotely by changing the laser power and its pulse frequency.