Mixed‐Transducer Micro‐Origami for Efficient Motion and Decoupled Sensing

Abstract

AbstractThis work introduces a mixed‐transducer micro‐origami to achieve efficient vibration, controllable motion, and decoupled sensing. Existing micro‐origami systems tend to have only one type of transducer (actuator/sensor), which limits their versatility and functionality because any given transducer system has a narrow range of advantageous working conditions. However, it is possible to harness the benefit of different micro‐transducer systems to enhance the performance of functional micro‐origami. More specifically, this work introduces a micro‐origami system that can integrate the advantages of three transducer systems: strained morph (SM) systems, polymer based electro‐thermal (ET) systems, and thin‐film lead zirconate titanate (PZT) systems. A versatile photolithography fabrication process is introduced to build this mixed‐transducer micro‐origami system, and their performance is investigated through experiments and simulation models. This work shows that mixed‐transducer micro‐origami can achieve power efficient vibration with high frequency, large vibration ranges, and little degradation; can produce decoupled folding motion with good controllability; and can accomplish simultaneous sensing and actuation to detect and interact with external environments and small‐scale samples. The superior performance of mixed‐transducer micro‐origami systems makes them promising tools for micro‐manipulation, micro‐assembly, biomedical probes, self‐sensing metamaterials, and more.