In-package MEMS-based thermal actuators for micro-assembly

Abstract. The paper describes the first fabrication and experimental results in the on-going development of MEMS-based electrothermal actuation devices for lateral XY positioning of an optical fibre to a laser diode chip to improve their coupling efficiency and reduce the overall packaging cost. The deflection performance of bulk silicon U- and V-beam thermal actuators with and without fibre loading has been experimentally determined. This is a part of an investigation of the feasibility of an alternative method of performing micro-assembly tasks, i.e. by means of product-internal assembly functions.