9 th International Conference on Microwaves Antenna Propagation & Remote Sensing (ICMARS-2013) on Dec. 11 th – 14 th , 2013 in Jodhpur, INDIA. A Novel Design And Simulation of an Electrothermally Actuated Microgripper SHABAZ AHMED SHEIKH , Dr T.SHANMUGANANTHAM Department Of Electronics Engineering. Pondicherry University, Puducherry, India. sheikhroxshahbaz@gmail.com , shanmuga.dee@pondiuni.edu.in sheikhshahbaz18@gmail.com , shanmugananthamster@gmail.com Abstract: In this paper, a newly modeled 3-D MEMS electrothermally actuated microgripper has been designed and simulated using COMSOL 4.3b based on finite element method (FEM). Electrothermal mechanism is the most widely used mechanism for providing large displacements at very small voltages. The new model is designed by combining asymmetric arm structure and a thin gold layer is inserted in the asymmetric arms which make it a typical bimorph structure. The microgripper presented here is electro-thermally actuated and optimized geometrically and materially to explore the effect of dimensional variation and material change on its performance. The in-plane, out of plane displacements, strain, stress ,current density and temperature has been analyzed and the results are discussed. Keywords: MEMS, microgripper, Electrothermal Actuator, COMSOL, Joule Heat, Thermal Expansion. I. INTRODUCTION Micro Electro Mechanical System (MEMS) is a highly miniaturized device or an array of devices combining electrical and mechanical components. Micro Electric Mechanical System or Microsystems is an emerging technology, which can be used in many application areas, including telecommunication, automotive, microsurgery, micro-robotics biomedical, , consumer electronics and also in defense applications [1]. Recently, with the increasing effort to reduce the system size and products in the industries, the need for micro as well as nanotechnology has become an important subject. The handling and assembly of the micro components is highly challenging due to their small size. The difficulty of handling the micro optical, micro electrical, micro biological elements in nano or micrometer range can be resolved by using special type of micro-grippers. Microgrippers are typical MEMS devices used to pick, and transport micro objects. Micro grippers are used in the field of micro-assembly, micro-surgery, micro-robotics and manipulation of micro-particles to a great degree. II DESIGN OF MICROGRIPPER STRUCTURE The microgrippers consists of two movable tines driven by two electrothermal micro-actuators as shown in Fig. 1 and Fig. 2. Our microgripper design was inspired by the well-established hot-and-cold-arm actuator design The hot-and-cold-arm actuator is composed of two arms of different widths that are joined at their free ends to form a U shape [4]. The current density in the actuator varies linearly with the applied voltage.[5] In this paper two different designs of electrothermal microgripper have been proposed. The geometry of the proposed electrothermally actuated Microgrippers is shown in Figure 1and figure 2. The novel electrothermal microgrippers are designed using COMSOL Multiphysics Software 4.3b. Figure.1: Design Of Microgripper 1