Development of electrothermal microactuator using a low environmental load polymer

This paper presents an environment friendly fabrication technology of MEMS devices using biodegradable polymer material applying hot embossing and polishing process. The capability of the method was demonstrated through the fabrication and tested of a polylactic acid (PLA) thermal microactuator. The displacement was about 11 times larger than that of a Si counterpart. In this research, a monolithic PLA thermal microactuator has been developed as low environmental load device.