A Piezoelectric MEMS Microgripper for Arbitrary XY Trajectory

In this paper, a piezoelectric microgripper for arbitrary 2D trajectory is proposed. The desired trajectory of the specimen under consideration was obtained by the deformability of a structure consisting of 16 straight beams and 12 C-structures. The mechanical action that deforms the structure was obtained by an electrical voltage supplied to piezoelectric plates. In order to verify the proposed model a FEM software (COMSOL) was used and some of the most commonly used trajectories for medical applications, micropositioning, micro-object manipulation, etc., were examined. The results showed that the proposed microgripper was capable of generating any parametrizable trajectory. Parametric studies were also carried out by examining the most relevant parameters highlighting their influence on specimen trajectories.