Effect of dimensional and material property uncertainties on thermal microactuator response using probabilistic methods

In this paper, the effect of material and dimensional uncertainties on performance of electrothermal microactuator is investigated. A simple and efficient uncertainty analysis method is used based on direct linearization method; also uncertainty analysis is performed by creating second-order metamodel through Box-Behnken design and Monte Carlo simulation. The results demonstrate how these uncertainties affect the microactuator tip deflection by confidence limit bands. The standard deviations of tip deflection obtained by these two probabilistic methods are very close.