Applications of MEMS actuators in micro/nano robotic manipulators

Micro/nano robotic manipulators have the ability to position and orient objects at the micro/nano scales and are capable of performing very small motion with high resolution. The performances of micro/nano robotic manipulators greatly influence on the reliability and efficiency of the entire system. Furtherly, the positioning and orientation of micro/nano robotic manipulators depend largely on their actuators. So the miniaturized actuators are vital for the operation of micro/ nano manipulators. With the reduction of object sizes to micro/nano scale, several predominate physics such as surface and intermolecular foreces become more significant and various physical effects appear. Combined with the micro electromechanical systems(MEMS) technologies, some MEMS actuators utilizing the piezoelectric effect, shape memory alloy(SMA), electromagnetic effect, electrostatic effect, thermal deformation and so on have been available and applied now. This paper focuses on the basic MEMS actuation technologies and their applications at micro/nano robotic manipulators.