A robust micro conveyer realized by arrayed polyimide joint actuators

A new micro-robotic conveyance system based on arrays of movable robust silicon legs has been developed and investigated. Motion is achieved by thermal expansion in polyimide joint actuators using electrical heating. Successful experiments on moving and rotating flat objects in the millimeter range have been performed with high load capacity. The conveyer consists of a 15x5 mm super(2) chip having 12 silicon legs, each with a length of 500 mu m. The maximum load conveyed on the structure was 3500 mg. Both transverse and rotational movements have been demonstrated experimentally. Conveyance velocities up to 12 mm s super(-1) have been measured. Accelerated lifetime measurements demonstrate the long-term stability of the actuators. The functionality of the polyimide joint actuators is unaffected after more than 2x10 super(8) load cycles.