Low Power Miniaturized Device for Gripping Applications

The paper presents a high performance microgripper based on an electrothermally actuated V-shaped actuator (VSA) connected to a clamped-guided curved micro-beam. This configuration enables a significant conversion and amplification of the displacement in the x-axis to the y-axis, thereby leading to the gripping of micro-objects at low actuation voltage and power consumption. With a small footprint of
$1.75\ \text{mm} \times 1.92\ \text{mm}$
and a low electrothermal voltage
$\mathrm{V}_{\text{th}}$
(4.5 V), the micro-gripper shows a low power consumption of about 250 mW and a high displacement of
$(\simeq 27.5\ \mu \mathrm{m})$
, which is very high compared to the reported microgrippers. Moreover, the effect of the inclination angle of VSA on the microgripper's performance is numerically investigated. It is observed that the power consumption can be reduced by half for a low inclination angle (< 1 °).