Design, Fabrication and Characterization of Lateral PZT actuator using Stiffness Control

강성제어 구조물을 이용한 수평구동형 박막 PZT 엑츄에이터의 설계, 제작 및 특성평가

We present a piezoelectric actuator using stiffness control and stroke amplification mechanism in order to make large lateral displacement. In this work, we suggest stiffness control approach that generates lateral displacement by increasing the vertical stiffness and reducing the lateral stiffness using additional structure. In addition, an additional structure of a serpentine spring amplifies the lateral displacement like leverage structure. The suggested lateral PZT actuator (bellows actuator) consists of serpentine spring and PZT/electrode layer which is located at the edge of the serpentine spring. The edge of the serpentine spring prevents the vertical motion of PZT layer, while the other edge of the serpentine spring makes stroke amplification like leverage structure. We have determined dimensions of the bellows actuator using ANSYS simulation. Length, width and thickness of PZT layer are 135$\mu$m, 20$\mu$m and 0.4$\mu$m, respectively. Dimensions of the silicon serpentine spring are thickness of 25$\mu$m, length of 300$\mu$m, and width of 5$\mu$m. The bellows actuator has been fabricated by SOI wafer with 25$\mu$m-top silicon and 1$\mu$m-buried oxide layer. The bellows actuator shows the maximum 3.93$\pm$0.2$\mu$m lateral displacement at 16V with 1Hz sinusoidal voltage input. In the frequency response test, the fabricated bellows actuator showed consistent displacement from 1Hz to 1kHz at 10V. From experimental study, we found the bellows actuator using thin film PZT and silicon serpentine spring generated mainly laterally displacement not vertical displacement at 16V, and serpentine spring played role of stroke amplification.