Thermal-mechanical performance of electro-thermally driven micro-actuator for HDDs

This paper reports the finite element simulation and experimental results on thermal mechanical performance of a thermal micro-actuator. This thermal actuator uses a pair of silicon-polymeric composite benders to actuate a slider when the expandable polymer elements are resistively heated. Results show that the micro-actuator can deliver a large displacement by a step pulse voltage. The mechanical resonance frequency and time constant are characterized experimentally. The thermal simulation of head-suspension incorporating the micro-actuator is also conducted to study thermal effects of the thermal actuator on flying head-suspension assembly.