[ASME ASME 2018 International Design Engineering Technical Conferences and Computers and Information in Engineering Conference - Quebec City, Quebec, Canada (Sunday 26 August 2018)] Volume 4: 23rd Design for Manufacturing and the Life Cycle Conference; 12th International Conference on Micro- and Nanosystems - New Insights Into Shape Memory Alloy Bimorph Actuators Formed by Electron Beam Evaporation

摘要： In order to create shape memory alloy (SMA) bimorph microactuators with high-precision features, a novel fabrication process combined with electron beam (E-beam) evaporation, lift-off resist and isotropic XeF2 dry etching method was developed. To examine the effect of E-beam deposition and annealing process on nitinol (NiTi) characteristics, the NiTi thin film samples with different deposition rate and overflow conditions during annealing process were investigated. With the characterizations using scanning electron microscope and x-ray diffraction, the results indicated that low E-beam deposition rate and argon employed annealing process could benefit the formation of NiTi crystalline structure. Besides, SMA bimorph microactuators with high-precision features as small as 5 microns were successfully the thermomechanical performance was experimentally verified and compared with finite element analysis simulation results.