2012/01/13 by Matthieu Gaudet, Steve Arscott · 9 citations
Engineering · Physics and Astronomy · #Advanced MEMS and NEMS Technologies #Aluminium #Cantilever #Capillary action #Deflection (physics) #Electrowetting and Microfluidic Technologies #Microelectromechanical systems #Modular Robots and Swarm Intelligence #Optical fiber #Optical power #Silicon #Wireless #cond-mat.mtrl-sci #physics.flu-dyn #physics.ins-det
paper · pdf · doi:10.1063/1.4723569
published in Applied Physics Letters 100(22) (American Institute of Physics)
arxiv created 2012/01/13 · openalex publication_date 2012/05/28 · arxiv updated 2012/06/01 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
We demonstrate a proof-of-concept that microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) can be optically actuated using photoelectrowetting. A 30 µm thick aluminium cantilever is actuated using an ordinary white light source via the modulation of capillary forces in a liquid bridge on a Teflon® coated commercial silicon wafer. A deflection of 58 µm is observed using a light power of 100 mW at a bias of 7 V. The deflection of the cantilever relies on the photoelectrowetting effect [S. Arscott, Sci. Rep. 1, 184 (2011)]. Such wireless actuation could be useful for optical addressing and control of autonomous wireless sensors, MEMS, and microsystems.