Design, Fabrication and Evaluation of a Novel Electro Thermal Micro-Gripper for Handling of Head Gimbal Assembly

Abstract

A development of a novel electro thermal micro-gripper for handling of Head Gimbal Assembly (HGA) is an ultimate goal of this study. The scope of this study covers a design, fabrication and performance evaluation of the electro thermal micro-gripper. ANSYS software was used to examine the magnitude of tip displacement, exerting force and induced stress to investigate the mechanism’s viability for handling of HGA. Electroplating of nickel was employed to construct the micro-gripper’s mechanisms with three different sizes, and their displacement and exerting force were then examined. From the experiments, each mechanism deflected between 100 to 220 μm while the exerting force was over 200 mN at 25oC above room temperature. Therefore, the results suggested that the new electro thermal micro-grippers are viable for the HGA handling application.