Piezo-electric parallel micro-gripper e.g. for positioning objects in micro-optics and micro-electronics, uses two parallel guides with solid hinges and two lever drives fixed on base

摘要

A micro-gripper has a kinematic structure fabricated from photo-sensitive glass by means of micro-technological techniques with the micro-gripper structure consisting of two identical parallel guides (1,2) with solid hinges (3-10) arranged parallel to one another, and two lever drives (13,14) fixed on a base over the solid hinges (15,16). The length of the piezo-element can be varied by applying an electric voltage via the friction contacts (K1,K2) to the parallel guides (1,2) and the change in length is then passed on to the parallel guides such that the gripper jaws (25,26) move parallel to one another.