Development of autonomous, mobile micro-electro-mechanical devices

摘要

In this work a novel approach to realize an autonomous micro-robot is addressed. A full CMOS compatible silicon micro-machining process has been adopted to realize the mechanical parts of the system. An innovative photo-thermo-mechanical actuation strategy together with silicon micro-machining technology are used for the realization of thermal microactuators which act as legs. The basic idea is to provide the actuation energy needed for the motion of the system through a light source and to improve the thermo-electro-mechanical efficiency by using an array of micro-lenses that concentrate the energy of the light beam on a small region of the actuators. Novel smart optical structures, based on Photonic Band Gap (PBG) materials, realized by using several periods of suitable metal-dielectric couples must be selectively deposited over the micro-lenses in order to suitably address the motion of the legs.