MEMS Actuators Driven by Lorentz Force

Jinling Yang and Jinying Zhang

Abstract
This chapter presents MEMS actuators driven by Lorentz force. This kind of
actuators linearly depends on the current perpendicular to the magnetic field,
requires no magnetic materials, and has no magnetic hysteresis effect. These
advantages result in the actuators of simple structure, linear motion, fast response,
reasonable power consumption, and ideal for large stroke application. A novel
actuator with folded beams structure is developed for a large lateral stroke. A
displacement of more than 55 μm was achieved with a magnetic field of 0.14 T
and the driving current of 8 mA. The actuator can generate a large displacement
by a low driving voltage and can be easily integrated with CMOS circuits.
Lorentz force is proportional to the magnetic field and the driving current,
which results in an easy control of the lateral displacement by the driving current.
The simple structure and fabrication process of the actuator lead to a high
fabrication yield and good stability.

Keywords
MEMS actuator • Lorentz force • Large stroke • Large displacement • High yield

Contents
Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Microactuators Driven by Lorentz Force . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Key Principle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Key Research Findings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

J. Yang (*) • J. Zhang

Institute of Semiconductors, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, People’s Republic of China
State Key Laboratory of Transducer Technology, Shanghai, People’s Republic of China
School of Electronic, Electrical and Communication Engineering, University of Chinese Academy
of Sciences, Beijing, People’s Republic of China
e-mail: jlyang@semi.ac.cn

# Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2017 1

Q.-A. Huang (ed.), Micro Electro Mechanical Systems, Micro/Nano Technologies,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-2798-7_28-1
2 J. Yang and J. Zhang

Potential Applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

Overview

Microactuators are important building blocks for many MEMS devices, which
generate forces or displacements to realize scanning, tuning, manipulating, or
delivering function. In the last decades, a large number of actuators have been
developed for various applications (Judy et al. 1995; Jeong et al. 2004; Grade et
al. 2003; Ko et al. 2002; Qui et al. 2003; Hwang et al. 2003) and they are usually
driven by electrostatic, thermal, piezoelectric, and electromagnetic methods, each of
which has its advantage and restriction. For example, the thermal actuators can
provide a large force and stroke but suffer from high power consumption and long
response time. The material used in the piezoelectric actuators is usually not
compatible with IC technology. A magnetic field and magnetic material are needed
for the electromagnetic actuators. Microelectrostatic actuators are more popular than
others due to their high compatibility with mature microfabrication processes, low
power consumption, simple structure, and quick response, but require high operating
voltage and show nonlinear behavior.
In many applications, such as optical switches, variable optical attenuators
(VOA), and microscanners, the MEMS actuators are highly desired to provide
large displacements of several tens of micrometers with a small voltage below 3.3
or 5 V supplied by CMOS circuits (Jeong et al. 2004). A variety of MEMS actuators
have been proposed to achieve a large stroke. Electrostatic (Grade et al. 2003),
electromagnetic (Ko et al. 2002), thermal actuation methods (Qui et al. 2003), and
achevron-type compliant structure (Hwang et al. 2003) have provided large dis-
placements. However, a large driving voltage beyond 5 V is needed to achieve a
large stroke, and thus the practical application of the actuators is limited. Lorentz
force resulting from the interaction of an electric field and a magnetic field has been
widely employed to excite MEMS devices (Sun et al. 2012; Lee et al. 2011; Lin et al.
2013). It linearly depends on the current perpendicular to the magnetic field, requires
no magnetic materials, and has no magnetic hysteresis effect. These advantages
result in the actuators of simple structure, linear motion, fast response, reasonable
power consumption, and ideal for large stroke application.
In the following sections, MEMS actuators driven by Lorentz force are intro-
duced. Section “Microactuators Driven by Lorentz Force” introduces typical MEMS
actuators driven by Lorentz force, such as the microactuators with vertical architec-
ture or curved beam springs. Several crucial parameters for achieving large displace-
ment under a low driving voltage are discussed. In section “Key Principle,” the
designing principle for MEMS actuators driven by Lorentz force with large lateral
stroke is presented. The key research findings in recent studies are demonstrated in
section “Key Research Findings.” Finally, the potential application is discussed for
the MEMS actuators driven by Lorentz force.
MEMS Actuators Driven by Lorentz Force 3

Microactuators Driven by Lorentz Force

Microactuators with large displacement under low driving voltage are highly desired
in optical communication, imaging, switches, and variable optical attenuators
(VOA), etc. Compared to electrostatic or piezoelectric forces, electromagnetic
driving based on Lorentz force has clear advantages.
Ko et al. developed a vertical leaf spring (Ko et al. 2002), which has a high aspect
ratio with a width of 1.2 μm, thickness of 16 μm, and length of 920 μm. The leaf
spring consisting of polysilicon and aluminum layers has resistance of 5 Ω and can
achieve a large deflection of 60 μm with a driving current of 566 mA; however, a
high driven voltage of 28 V is required.
A dual-axis actuator with curved-beam springs consisting of silicon and alumi-
num was reported by Fang et al. (Lee et al. 2011). This structure could be used as a
micropositioning stage and can perform two-axis in-plane motions. The output
displacement can reach
13 μm with input currents of
150 mA. Later on, a one-
axis Lorentz force actuator was developed by Fang et al. (Lin et al. 2013). The
motion-decoupled spring connected by two serpentine beams on the same side
performed a large displacement in the desired direction; the deviation of the dis-
placement in the unwanted direction was restricted. As a consequence, an input
current of 50 mA leads to x-axis and y-axis displacement of 40 μm and 0.9 μm,
respectively.
These results indicate that tens and even hundreds of milliamp current is required
to achieve a displacement of several tens of micrometers. In practical applications,
microactuator array is usually employed, thus the required driving current could be
quite large and would lead to high power consumption and severe thermal dissipa-
tion problems, etc. For realizing large displacement under a low driving voltage,
more elaborating designs are needed, for example, material properties and structural
parameters should be refined for a moderate spring constant and good stress
matching between the structural layers. The following section focuses on the design-
ing principle for a MEMS actuator with large lateral stroke driven by Lorentz force.

Key Principle

The working principle of the presented MEMS actuator is schematically shown in

Fig. 1. Various reported configurations of beams are based on the same principle (Ko
et al. 2002; Lee et al. 2011; Lin et al. 2013; Lv et al. 2015a, b). The actuator consists
of folded beams and a moving plate. When applying a current I through the beams
and a static magnetic field B perpendicular to the beam plane, Lorentz force F,
perpendicular to the direction of the current and the magnetic field, will drive the
actuator into displacement in the xy plane.
The lateral stroke of the actuator linearly depends on the current in terms of Eq. 1,
Lorentz force can be expressed as
4 J. Yang and J. Zhang

Fig. 1 Schematic drawing of

the MEMS actuator

 !  ! !
   
 F  ¼ I L  B  ¼ BIL  sin θ (1)

Where B is the magnetic flux density of the magnetic field, I is the current flowing
through the beam, L is the beam length, and θ is the angle between the current and
the magnetic field.
As shown in Fig. 1, the actuator beam is located in xy plane and the magnetic field
is perpendicular to the folded beam. When a current flows through the folded beam, a
driving force F along the y direction is generated, as expressed by

F ¼ BILe (2)

where the effective length Le is the length of the beam contributing to the lateral
motion.
The actuator can be considered as a spring with a spring constant k (Senturia
2001), it deforms under an external force F, meanwhile, an elastic restoring force Fe
can be generated

Fe ¼ ky (3)

where y is the displacement of the beam. At an equilibrium state, the driving force F
is equal to the elastic restoring force Fe. The displacement can be calculated by

Fd BILe
y¼ ¼ (4)
k k
To achieve a large displacement, B, I, Le, and k should be optimized. k is
determined by the mechanical properties of the material and the structure of the
actuator (Fedder 1994).
Figure 2 is the schematic drawing of the folded beam, its spring constant can be
calculated (Fedder 1994)
MEMS Actuators Driven by Lorentz Force 5

L
W

b
x

z
a y
one meander

Fig. 2 Schematic drawing of folded beam

48EIz
kx  2
(5)
ða þ wÞ ða þ w þ b þ wÞn3
48EIz
ky  2
(6)
ðb þ wÞ ½3ða þ wÞ þ b þ wn3

where E is the Young’s modulus, Iz is the bending moment of inertia about the z-axis,
n is the folded times, w is the width of the beam, a and b are the row and line pitch,
respectively.
For beams connected in series, the spring constant can be calculated as (Fedder
1994)

1 1 1
¼ þ (7)
k k1 k2
For parallel connection, the spring constant can be calculated as

k ¼ k1 þ k2 (8)

For the folded beam as shown in Fig. 3, its spring constant can be calculated by

96EIz, b
kx  2
(9)
b ð3a þ bÞn3

where E is the Young’s modulus, Iz is the bending moment of inertia about the z-axis,
n is the folded times, a and b are the row and line pitch, respectively (Fedder 1994).
For the double-ended beam with b = 0, the spring constant can be computed

32EWH3
k¼ (10)
L3
where W and H are the width and thickness of the actuator, respectively.
6 J. Yang and J. Zhang

a
L
W

b
y

z
a x
one meander

b
L
W

z
x

Fig. 3 Schematic drawing of the actuator, (a) folded beam and (b) double-ended beam

Substituting Eq. 9 into Eq. 3, the displacement can be expressed as

BILa2 n3
y¼ ð a þ bÞ (11)
96EIz,b

The displacement linearly increases with B, I, or b.

Key Research Findings

Single crystal silicon is often used as the beam material due to its excellent
mechanical properties and robust lifetime, metal materials are required to transmit
the current. Thus, composite films consisting of silicon and metal are often adopted
in the actuator structure to generate the Lorentz force.
A novel MEMS actuator driven by Lorentz force for a large lateral stroke was
recently developed under a low driving voltage (Lv et al. 2015a, b). The actuator
showed excellent linear characterization and can be integrated with CMOS circuits.
The fabrication process of the actuator started with SOI wafer with 5 μm thick
(100)-oriented top Si layer. A metal layer Cr and Au with thicknesses of 30 and
300 nm was deposited onto the top Si layer by electron beam evaporation and was
patterned. The top Si layer was etched by RIE to produce the folded beam. The Si
substrate was etched from the backside by DRIE, and the beam was released in
hydrofluoric acid (Lv et al. 2015a).
Figure 4 shows the scanning electron microscope (SEM) photograph of a typical
actuator. Figure 5 shows the optical photographs of different actuators.
The MEMS actuator was integrated with PCB circuit via wire bonding and was
placed on a permanent magnet, which can provide a static magnetic field for the
MEMS actuator. The magnetic flux density imposed on the MEMS actuator is about
MEMS Actuators Driven by Lorentz Force 7

Fig. 4 SEM photographs of

the fabricated actuator

Fig. 5 Optical photographs of actuators, (a)-(–d) for type 1–4, respectively

0.3 T. By applying a driving current, the displacement magnitudes of the MEMS

actuator were obtained. The displacement is measured by an optical microscope and
8 J. Yang and J. Zhang

Fig. 6 The optical photographs of the deformed actuators

the resistance of the MEMS actuator was monitored by a multimeter. Figure 6 shows
the optical photographs of the deformed MEMS actuator in the opposite direction.
The relationship between the displacement of the actuator and the flowing current
of 0–8 mA in a magnetic flux density of 0.3 T are depicted in Fig. 7. Very good linear
dependence was observed for different structures in Fig. 5. Type 1 actuator has the
folded beam in both x and y direction and thus has the smallest stiffness among the
four kinds of structures, which results in the largest displacement. Types 2 and 3
have the folded beams in one direction, possess a relatively large stiffness. Type 4
actuator has a symmetrical structure, more anchors and constraints lead to the
smallest displacement among the four actuators. Type 1 actuator will be used as
example in the following discussion.
A lateral stroke of more than 47 μm was obtained for type 1 actuator driven by a
current of 8 mA, which coincided with the calculation and simulation results. The
displacement is proportional to the applied current. The displacements switch to the
opposite direction under a reversed current and linearly increase with the current, as
shown in Fig. 8.
Figure 9 gives the dependence of the displacement on the magnetic flux density. It
can be seen that the displacement is proportional to the magnetic flux density, which
agrees with the theoretical analysis. By increasing the magnetic flux density, a much
larger lateral stroke can be achieved.
To have a deep understanding on the stability of the actuator, cycling test was
carried out. The actuator was tested by monitoring the displacements of the actuator
while the driving current goes from 0 up to 8 mA and down from 8 to 0 mA,
repeatedly. The cycled displacements versus the driving current are shown in Fig. 10.
The actuator has excellent stability and could precisely be controlled. The slight
scattering of the displacements at one current were caused by the displacement
measurement error with the microscope.
Although the folded beam is very flexible, it is strong and stable enough to be
immune from environmental noise. And the actuator has small mass (about 0.6 mg).
Its resonance frequency is much higher than that of the environment and no
mechanical coupling to the environment occurs (Lv et al. 2015b). Therefore, the
MEMS Actuators Driven by Lorentz Force 9

Fig. 7 Linear dependence of

displacement on applied
current from 0 to 8 mA with a
magnetic flux density of 0.3 T

Fig. 8 Dependence of
displacement on applied
current from 8 to 8 mA with
a magnetic flux density of
0.3 T

Fig. 9 Dependence of
displacement on magnetic flux
density from 0 to 0.3 T with a
current of 8 mA
10 J. Yang and J. Zhang

Fig. 10 Cycling test for the

actuator driven by a current
from 0 to 8 mA with a
magnetic flux density of 0.3 T

environment noise has no observable effect on the actuator. During testing, the
actuator was placed on a table without any mechanical isolation and steadily
displaced with the driving Lorentz force. As shown in Fig. 10, the displacements
remained unchanged with the same driving force during the cycling test.
The metal layers used in the MEMS actuator were Cr and Au with thicknesses of
30 nm and 300 nm, respectively. The resistance of the MEMS actuator measured by
a multimeter is 340 Ω, and significantly increased with the current due to Joule heat
generated by the current passing through the folded beam, for example, the resis-
tance of the actuator increases to 465 Ω, about 1.4 times of the original value when
the current goes up to 8 mA, as shown in Fig. 11.
To integrate with a CMOS circuits, the driving voltage of the actuator should be
lower than 3 V. However, the resistance increase would raise the driving voltage
beyond this limit. To reduce the resistance changes with the applied current, a thicker
metal multilayer of Cr, Cu, and Au with the respective thickness of 30, 600, and
100 nm was used, the Joule heat generated by the driving current decreases, the
resistance change with the current is dramatically reduced, as shown in Fig. 11, the
resistance of the actuator at 8 mA was only 1.05 times of the original value (smaller
than 300 Ω). Therefore, the driving voltage is smaller than 2.4 V, below the limiting
value for CMOS circuits even at the maximum driving current of 8 mA. Generally, a
lateral displacement of more than 47 μm was achieved with a magnetic flux density
of 0.3 T and a current of 8 mA. A linear dependence of the displacement on the
current was achieved for the actuator. Much larger displacement can be obtained by
increasing the magnetic field and the current.
In spite of the apparent advantages of these actuators, there are still several
limitations for the design. For instance, a complex architecture is needed in order
to achieve low k. And the stress matching between the Si and metal layers are not
satisfactory and results in reduced fabrication yield. Moreover, SOI wafers are
needed to make homogenous beams, thus increases the fabrication costs.
MEMS Actuators Driven by Lorentz Force 11

Fig. 11 Dependence of the

resistance on the applied
current from 0 to 8 mA

Compared to single crystal Si, the SiO2 film has much lower Young’s modulus
and larger compressive stress. Therefore, the SiO2 film has potential to produce the
bilayer beam with small k and to achieve good stress matching with metal layer.
Keeping this in mind, an improved novel MEMS actuator was developed (Fedder
1994). A straightforward structure consisting of SiO2 and aluminum has several
advantages, such as plain folded beam structure, large displacement under a low
driving current/voltage, superb stress matching between the two layers, and high
fabrication yield (nearly 100%). These advantages ensure excellent reliability and
potential application for large array systems.
The fabrication process started with a (100)-oriented Si wafer. Thermal oxidation
was done to produce 0.9 μm thick silicon dioxide, then Al layer was deposited by
electron beam evaporation and was patterned by dry etching. The reactive ion
etching (RIE) was employed to remove the Al and SiO2 layer. Subsequently, the
silicon substrate was etched from the backside by deep reactive ion etching (DRIE)
until 50 μm thick Si remaining. Finally, the silicon substrate was isotropically etched
from the front side with the top Al layer as the etching mask and the actuator were
released (Lv et al. 2015b).
Figure 12 shows the optical photographs of different SiO2/Al actuators. The
simple fabrication process results in a high yield (nearly 100%).
A smaller magnetic flux density of about 0.14 T is imposed on the MEMS
actuator. A digital current source was used to provide the driving current.
The relationship between the displacement of the actuator and the flowing current
of 0–8 mA with a magnetic flux density of 0.14 T is depicted in Fig. 13. The
displacement increased with the current.
The displacement of the actuator at 8 mA and a magnetic flux density of 0.14 T
changed linearly with b, as shown in Fig. 14, which agrees well with the theoretical
results.
A lateral stroke of more than 55 μm was obtained for the actuator with b = 50 μm
driven by a current of 8 mA, which coincided with the calculation and simulation
12 J. Yang and J. Zhang

Fig. 12 Optical photographs of different actuators

Fig. 13 Dependence of 60
displacement on applied b = 50 µm
current from 0 to 8 mA with a 50 b = 40 µm
magnetic flux density of b = 30 µm
0.14 T b = 20 µm
40
b = 10 µm
b = 0 µm
D(µm)

30

20

10

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
I (mA)

results. The displacement is proportional to the applied current and switch to the
opposite direction under a reversed current, as shown in Fig. 15.
The cycled displacements versus the driving current are shown in Fig. 16. The
actuator has excellent stability and could be precisely controlled.
When the current flows through the beam containing the metal layer, heating
effect is distinct. The actuator beam with 1 μm thick Al originally has a low
resistance, about 85 Ω. The resistances of metals increase with temperature. When
applying a current on the actuator, Joule heating takes place, changes the resistance
MEMS Actuators Driven by Lorentz Force 13

Fig. 14 Dependence of
displacement on b with an
applied current of 8 mA and a
magnetic flux density of
0.14 T

Fig. 15 Dependence of
displacement on applied
current from 8 to 8 mA with
a magnetic flux density of
0.14 T

and elastic stiffness of the actuator, and finally influences the current dependence of
the displacement.
In order to clarify the effect of Joule heating on the displacement of the actuator,
the current dependence of the resistance and the time dependence of the resistance
and displacement were studied, as shown in Figs. 17, 18 and 19. The resistances of
the actuator driven by a current of 0 = 8 mA remain unchanged with slight drifts
(85
0.5 Ω), as shown in Fig. 17. Moreover, while driven with a current of 8 mA
for 2 h, the resistances of the actuator still keep unchanged (85
0.1 Ω), as shown
in Fig. 18.
When the temperature rises, there will be thermal stress resulting from the
different thermal expansion coefficients of Al and SiO2. The thermal stress may
lead to stiffness change of the actuator and finally the displacement change with the
temperature. However, the measured displacements of the actuator driven by a
current of 8 mA for 2 h keep constant (55
0.5 μm), as shown in Fig. 19.
14 J. Yang and J. Zhang

Fig. 16 Cycling test for the

actuator driven by a current of
0–8 mA under a magnetic flux
density of 0.14 T

Fig. 17 Dependence of the

resistance on the applied
current from 0 to 8 mA

The generated thermal power by the maximum driving current of 8 mA is

5.44 mW. The abovementioned results indicate that thermal dissipation in the
suspended bimetallic structure of Al and SiO2 balances Joule heat, which results in
no clear temperature rising.
Generally, by optimizing the structure and geometry of the actuator, a lateral
displacement of more than 55 μm was achieved with a magnetic flux density of
0.14 T and a current of 8 mA. The high fabrication yield and good stability ensure
potential application of the actuator in a large array system.
MEMS Actuators Driven by Lorentz Force 15

Fig. 18 Dependence of the

resistance on the time with the
current of 8 mA

Fig. 19 Dependence of the

displacement on the time with
the current of 8 mA

Potential Applications

Much effort has been made to achieve large displacement under low driving
voltages. The MEMS actuator driven by Lorentz force can be applied as optical
switches, VOA, microscanners, and so on. The developed MEMS actuator shows a
linear dependence of the lateral displacement on the driving current and has high
fabrication yield and excellent stability. These promising performances pave the way
to the large array system in the future.
16 J. Yang and J. Zhang

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