A Study on Optical Micro-Actuator Using Bimetal Element

Abstract A new type of optical actuator is proposed by using the bimetal( Ni-Cr-Fe/36Ni-Fe ), which is to be developed for a optical micro-mechatronics system. The paper describes fundamental characteristics on a larger actuator both theoretically and experimentally. In order to identify some unknown parameters of the actuator, the results simulated by FEM are presented, and are compared with the experimental data. Furthermore, a numerical experiment on the optical micro-actuator is carried out to analyze step characteristic by FEM. Finally, the development of helical actuator is also provided.