MINIATURIZED SHAPE-MEMORY ALLOY ACTUATORS FABRICATED USING MICROSTEREOPHOTOLITHOGRAPHY

A new method for the fabrication of actuators has been implemented. It is based on polymer structures built using microstereophotolithograph y (mu SPL) integrating Shape Memory Alloy (SMA) elements. The principl e of the proposed approach consists in the assembly of SMA wires toget her with passive mechanical architectures fabricated using mu SPL tech niques. A light aided assembly method based on photopolymerization has been adjusted to clamp SMA parts to mu SPL parts. This approach has b een implemented to build actuators using distributed elasticity or lia ble hinge architectures. These actuators have been associated in paral lel or serie to produce new active mechanical components. Some of thes e actuators have been experimentally tested. The obtained results are presented and discussed.