Abstract
Abstract
Micro electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) are miniaturized devices that consist of both mechanical and electrical parts. Compliant mechanisms have made an enormous contribution in the design process of various fields such as adaptive structures, hand-held tools, components in transportations, electronics and medical tools. The use of compliant mechanisms will help in reducing the number of components, as a result decreasing manufacturing cost and increasing the performance. The topology optimization methods search for an ideal material distribution of a structure. In this investigation, a new two-dimensional micro-grippers compliant mechanism, which can realize a straight-line path and parallel movement arms, are developed. Material models, which parameterize stiffness and density properties, are implemented based on the well-known solid isotropic materials with penalization model. Optimality criteria method is applied as the optimization algorithm using the ANSYS package. The micro-grippers with compliant mechanism can be applied to targets with a diameter of up to 400 μm.