MICROGRIPPERS FABRICATED BY THE LIGA TECHNIQUE

A study devoted to the design and fabrication of microgrippers using t he LIGA technique is described in this paper. The design method is pre sented and validated by the use of finite-element analysis. Technologi cal topics are detailed to illustrate the fabrication process. Also, e xperimental data concerning the mechanical behaviour of one of the mic rogrippers are reported. These data are used to improve the previous f inite-element analysis. Finally, a comparison between experiments and theoretical predictions is discussed.