Design, fabrication, and characterization of micro thermal actuators

2020-11
Gülcüler, Buğrahan
This thesis presents the design, fabrication, and characterization of V-Type thermal actuators, which will be used in an actuator system that is planned to be a tensile and compressive test setup to characterize the expandible cells by the help of double- ended tuning fork resonators as a force sensing mechanism. Actuators are serially packed to increase the generated force by them while maintaining the same deflection values. They have been connected to the overall system by springs to create a force on test subjects in both compressive and tensile states. In order to cut the effect of high-temperature values generated from the actuators, cooling fingers have been added just after the actuators. Two large plates are designed on the actuator system to put the test subjects. While one side of the actuator system consists of actuators packs and one of the plates, the other side consists of the other plate and the force-sensing mechanism. Between these two sides of the actuator system, the only connection will be test subjects. The cell attachment mechanism and other biology-related research are not the focus of the interest of this thesis. On the other side of the sensor, the force sensing mechanism consists of Double Ended Tuning Forks, DETF, as a resonant sensor. Modeling, design, and characterization of the DETF are discussed extensively. After the fabrication, characterization tests of the actuators takes place. It has been seen that the mathematical model and COMSOL analysis for the actuators hold the test results. For 8V of voltage values, 8-9

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Citation Formats
B. Gülcüler, “Design, fabrication, and characterization of micro thermal actuators,” M.S. - Master of Science, Middle East Technical University, 2020.