A fully integrated surface micromachined magnetic microactuator with a multilevel meander magnetic core

A fully integrated magnetic microactuator using surface micromachining techniques is presented. To achieve this device, low-resistance meander conductors located in a single plane were interwoven with multilevel meander magnetic cores. This 'wrapped' solenoid (with the core wrapped around the conductor) was fabricated in a fully integrated fashion. A magnetic microactuator was realized by incorporating a surface micromachined nickel-iron cantilever beam as part of the magnetic circuit of the core. The nickel-iron cantilever beam was 2.5 mu m thick, 25 mu m wide, and 780 mu m long, and the magnetic circuit contained seventeen turns of meander-type solenoid coils. Cantilever beam tip deflection of 6 mu m in the vertical direction was achieved when a DC voltage less than 1 V (and resulting drive current of 800 mA) was applied to the coils. This fully integrated multilevel topology offers advantages in a variety of micromagnetic applications, where actuators can be fabricated on the same substrate with an integrated circuit and actuated with low voltages.>