FABRICATION OF AN ELECTRO-THERMAL MICRO GRIPPER USING SILVER-NICKEL INK

This paper reports a miniaturized electro-thermal gripper with a novel fabrication process applying composite silver-nickel ink. Compared to state of the art, a thick resistive structure is dispensed on a silicon wafer by an injecting machine, which will decrease the fabrication process complexity. Device size, driving power and deformation of the gripper could be further improved by stacking multi-layers of silver-nickel structures. In the paper, the electrical and mechanical behaviors of the micro-grippers are well characterized. The displacement of each arm is observed to be 310.6 mu m for the applied current of 0.26 A. The maximum power dissipation is 400 mW for the actuators. The fabricated micro gripper can grip a small ball with a diameter of 1.3 mm.