000K utf8 1100 $c2020 1500 eng 2050 urn:nbn:de:gbv:8:3-2021-00039-6 2051 10.3390/iecat2020-08501 3000 Arivanandhan, Gowtham 3010 Curtis, Sabrina Michelle 3010 Kohl, Manfred 3010 Li, Zixiong 3010 Quandt, Eckhard 3010 Velvaluri, Prasanth 4000 Temperature Homogenization of Co-Integrated Shape Memory—Silicon Bimorph Actuators [Arivanandhan, Gowtham] 4209 The high work density and beneficial downscaling of shape memory alloy (SMA) actuation performance provide a basis for the development of actuators and systems at microscales. Here, we report a novel monolithic fabrication approach for the co-integration of SMA and Si microstructures to enable SMA-Si bimorph microactuation. Double-beam cantilevers are chosen for the actuator layout to enable electrothermal actuation by Joule heating. The SMA materials under investigation are NiMnGa and NiTi(Hf) films with tunable phase transformation temperatures. We show that Joule heating of the cantilevers generates increasing temperature gradients for decreasing cantilever size, which hampers actuation performance. In order to cope with this problem, a new method for design optimization is presented based on finite element modeling (FEM) simulations. We demonstrate that temperature homogenization can be achieved by the design of additional folded beams in the perpendicular direction to the active beam cantilevers. Thereby, power consumption can be reduced by more than 35 % and maximum deflection can be increased up to a factor of 2 depending on the cantilever geometry. 4950 https://doi.org/10.3390/iecat2020-08501$xR$3Volltext$534 4950 https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:gbv:8:3-2021-00039-6$xR$3Volltext$534 4961 https://macau.uni-kiel.de/receive/macau_mods_00000969 5051 500 5051 600 5550 e-beam lithography 5550 finite element modeling 5550 microactuator 5550 shape memory bimorph effect 5550 silicon technology