Bimorph

About: Bimorph is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 3339 publications have been published within this topic receiving 51880 citations.

Piezoelectric bimorph-based translation device for two-dimensional, remote micropositioning

Abstract: We describe a two‐dimensional, remote micropositioning device that uses the bending mode of a piezoelectric bimorph for walking in the forward/reverse direction of motion. For this mode of operation step sizes range from ∼50 to 5000 nm, with a voltage sensitivity of ∼10 nm/V. Speeds of about 1 mm/s are possible. In the lateral direction of motion, the linear extension mode of the bimorph is used, giving step sizes from ∼50 to 1000 nm, with a sensitivity of ∼2 nm/V. For the walking sequence, anodized aluminum feet are electrostatically clamped to an anodized aluminum baseplate. When used as the coarse positioner in a scanning tunneling microscope, the device requires less than 100 V operating voltage, thus eliminating the high‐voltage supply needed for previous piezoelectric walking devices. A circuit diagram for ‘‘joystick’’ control of the micropositioner is also described.

Scanning tunneling microscopy head having integrated capacitive sensors for calibration of scanner displacements

Abstract: Scanning tunneling microscopy heads having some tip–displacement measurement capability are essential for quantitative and accurate measurements A scanning tunneling microscopy head based on a bimorph parallelogram scanner with a metallized glass cube situated above the tunneling tip is described The cube acts as a counterelectrode or as a mirror for capacitance‐based and interferometric measurements of scanner displacements The capacitive sensors are mounted on differential screws facing the cube in such a way that the lateral Abbe error in the measurement of actual tip–displacements is minimized The sensor electronics uses a Howland‐type alternating current source, and has a deviation from linearity of less than 015% up to 30 μm and a low frequency bandwidth of 1 kHz

Thermal microactuators for optical purpose

Abstract: The core of the project was to design a moveable micromirror array with the most optimal dependence of the optically active area, the deflection angles and the micromirror power consumption. The matrix of 10/spl times/20 micromirrors uses a thermal actuated principle. The micromirror was designed using an industrial 0.8 /spl mu/m double metal CMOS process followed by one single postprocessing step and anisotropic silicon etch. The device consists of one cantilever beam supporting the mirror plate. The beam is a bimorph sandwich of aluminium and silicon dioxide enclosing polysilicon heating resistor. The control electronics contains 20-bit edge-triggered shift register with serial data entry and an output from each of the twenty stages (flip-flop). The output buffer is a driver for the CMOS switch (transfergate) which connects current (Pad Supply for the beam) to the thermal actuator (beam). The ANSYS program was used for the mechanical simulation of thermally actuated micromirror.

Piezoelectric ceramic flapping-wing-type robot

Abstract: The invention discloses a piezoelectric ceramic flapping-wing-type robot. The piezoelectric ceramic flapping-wing-type robot comprises a robot body support frame, robot wings, a piezoelectric driver, a driving electric cable, a transmission amplifying mechanism and driving feet, wherein the robot wings are based on a bionic design and are similar to a dipster hoverfly in shape; when the robot walks on land, a piezoelectric ceramic sheet is selected as the piezoelectric driver, and the piezoelectric ceramic sheet and a single-bent-end transmission amplifying mechanism form the driving feet; the driving electric cable inputs two common grounding sine wave signals for respectively driving the two driving feet, and the robot is driven to do controllable plane motion by utilizing a resonant oscillation principle. When the robot flies in the sky, the driving feet are taken down; a piezoelectric ceramic bimorph element is used as the piezoelectric driver to input a driving voltage signal; by a four-connecting-rod transmission mechanism, the oscillation is amplified and is converted into flapping of wings, thereby driving the robot body to fly. The robot is simple, light and convenient, and has certain adaptability to the environment.

Modelling and optimisation of a bimorph piezoelectric cantilever beam in an energy harvesting application

Abstract: Piezoelectric materials are excellent transducers in converting vibrational energy into electrical energy, and vibration-based piezoelectric generators are seen as an enabling technology for wireless sensor networks, especially in selfpowered devices. This paper proposes an alternative method for predicting the power output of a bimorph cantilever beam using a finite element method for both static and dynamic frequency analyses. Experiments are performed to validate the model and the simulation results. In addition, a novel approach is presented for optimising the structure of the bimorph cantilever beam, by which the power output is maximised and the structural volume is minimised simultaneously. Finally, the results of the optimised design are presented and compared with other designs.