Temperature control in thermal microactuators with applications to in-situ nanomechanical testing

Thermal microactuators are used in many micro/nano-technologies. To circumvent undesired heating of the end effector, heat sink beams are co-fabricated with the thermal actuator and connected to the substrate. This paper reports a combined experimental and modeling study on the effect of such heat sink beams. Temperature distribution is measured and simulated using Raman scattering and multiphysics finite element method, respectively. Our results show that heat sink beams are effective in controlling the temperature of the thermal actuator. Insights on how to achieve both low temperature and large actuator displacement for in-situ mechanical testing of nanoscale specimens are provided.

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