Control-Oriented Modeling and Feedback Compensation For a Thin-Film TiNi Actuator

摘要

This study sought to derive thermal and hysteresis models of actuation systems employing thin film NiTi. Future actuators are likely to exploit the high energy densities available from NiTi; however, an impediment to its application in high-bandwidth actuators has been the slow thermal time constants associated with the bulk material. High-bandwidth actuators using thin film NiTi show great promise due to the increased rates of heat transfer. This grant supported the design, fabrication, and characterization of a NiTi bubble actuator and the fabrication, testing, and excitation of a silicon beam's first resonant mode with a NiTi thin film. This grant also supported the development of the authors' thin film processing techniques. (6 figures).