Fabrication of Thin-Film Actuators Using Magnetostriction

We fabricated two kinds of cantilever actuator and a traveling machine by using magnetostrictive Tb-Fe and Sm-Fe thin films on a polyimide substrate. No power supply cable is required for their actuation, because they are driven by an external magnetic field. The magnetostrictive cantilevers exhibited a large deflection in low magnetic fields. Their unique characteristics suggest that magnetostriction can be used as the driving mechanism of microactuators.