A polymeric microtweezer with integrated force/displacement sensor

This paper presents the design, simulation, fabrication and characterization of a polymeric electro-thermally actuated microtweezer integrated with force / displacement sensor for microrobotic, micromanipulation and microassembly applications. The SU-8 based microtweezer was designed with a piezoresistive integrated sensor. The microtweezer is actuated using the chevron / V-shaped configuration electro-thermal actuators. Numerical simulations were performed in order to evaluate the behavior of the actuator and the sensitivity of the sensor as force sensor. A comparison between the simulation results and the measurements were presented regarding the openings of the microtweezer tips. The electrical response of the sensor as function of displacement was numerically simulated and compared to the experimental data.