THE ELECTRICAL AND MECHANICAL CHARACTERIZATION OF SILICON BASED ELECTROMAGNETIC MICRO-ACTUATOR FOR FLUID INJECTION SYSTEM

Electrical and mechanical properties of Electromagnetic (EM) micro-actuator with silicon membrane has been characterized. The study is aimed to see the effect of the geometry and the structure of the actuator system on the actuating performance of the silicon-based membrane for fluid injection purposes. The actuator system consists of two main parts, namely, the electromagnetic part that generates an electromagnetic field and the magneto-mechanical part that enable the membrane deformation depending on the magnetic force on the silicon membrane. A standard MEMS process was implemented to fabricate the actuator system with an additional bonding between the actuator part and microfluidic part to complete the system for fluid injection purpose. The simulation using COMSOL Multiphysics was done to see the generation of the magnetic force and to see its effect on the membrane deformation. It was found that the height of the generated magnetic force increases significantly with the applied power. The measurement of the membrane deformation done at a 20-mu m silicon membrane showed a maximum deflection of 4.6 mu m. The measurement results of the electrical characteristic of the device were compared with the simulation to validate the analysis. This study is very important to get the general insight of the silicon-based actuator membrane capability for the fluidic injection system in lab-on-chip.