Computer Assisted Design of Actuators for High Precision Adjustment in Micro Technology

Micro systems technology is expected to play a pivotal part in future product development both in scientific and industrial fields. Decreasing size and tolerances make mounting and joining operations quite a challenging task. Laser adjustment is a suitable technology to achieve the necessary accuracy by processing specifically designed actuators on which the functional elements have been mounted. Nowadays, the specifically tailored design of these actuators is performed by experts through an iterative process. In this paper we will present the concept and parts of the design and development of a computer based assistance system helping the designer define new actuator geometries. We will introduce a data model to describe already existing actuator geometries and summarise them in a construction catalogue. The adjustment task at stake is described by means of kinematic chains. The design of actuator geometry therefore boils down to the design of a kinematic chain. A suitable kinematic chain is sought for and computed using the Denavit-Hartenberg method which has been extended to handle closed kinematic chains as well.