Thermo-mechanical micro-actuator: dynamic response

The figure below shows the finite element modeling (FEM) of the dynamic response of a bimorph
micro-actuator. Sinusoidal AC currents are applied through the chromium electrodes at frequencies
of 1, 10 and 100 Hz respectively. In blue is shown the displacement of the free-end of the cantilever.
In red is shown the corresponding temperature at the free-end of the cantilever. In all cases, the
amplitude (Vpp) of the excitation current is the same.

Figure: Finite element modeling of the dynamic response of a bimorph micro-actuator under 1,
10 and 100 Hz sinusoidal AC current excitations.

Several observations can be made out of these three simulations. First of all, the cantilever
oscillation frequency is the same as the temperature variation frequency. This is in accordance with
formula (1) relating the radius of curvature of the cantilever to the temperature change. β is a
constant while Δα, ΔT and r stand for the thermal expansion coefficient difference, the temperature
difference and the radius of curvature. The full derivation of this formula is given in S. Schweizer’s
Thesis (see previous supporting information).

1
= 𝛽 ∗ 𝛥𝛼 ∗ 𝛥𝑇 (1)
𝑟
A second observation is that the cantilever oscillation frequency is twice the excitation current
frequency. Indeed, for the 1 Hz excitation current, we clearly see that the cantilever makes two full
oscillations during 1 second. The qualitative explanation is rather simple. We use a sinusoidal current
as excitation current which means that within one period, the current has positive and negative
values. However, no matter the direction of the current, it dissipates energy in the chromium track
by Joule heating which actuates the cantilever. As a result, the cantilever oscillation frequency is
twice that of the sinusoidal excitation current frequency.

Finally, we also see that the heat dissipation of the device has a limited bandwidth. By increasing the
frequency of the excitation current, we observe that the cantilever temperature doesn’t go back to
its initial value around 300 K at each oscillation. This is due to the fact that at high frequencies, the
cantilever has no time to cool down between two subsequent current peaks. In a general way,
heating a material is faster than its passive cooling in air. As a result, the oscillation of the free-end of
the cantilever also becomes smaller. It is important to note here that the decrease in the amplitude
of the cantilever oscillation has two origins. The first one is the limited bandwidth of the heat
dissipation, and the second one is the stiffness of the cantilever itself. If we further increase the
excitation current frequency to match the mechanical resonant frequency of the cantilever (in the
10 kHz range), then the amplitude of the free-end displacement would increase again at this specific
frequency.