J Micro-Bio Robot (2017) 13:1–14
DOI 10.1007/s12213-017-0098-2
REVIEW
A review on actuation and sensing techniques
for MEMS-based microgrippers
Sijie Yang1 · Qingsong Xu1
Received: 5 February 2017 / Revised: 13 April 2017 / Accepted: 22 May 2017 / Published online: 30 May 2017
© Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2017
Abstract Microelectromechanical system (MEMS) reveals
excellent flexibility and adaptability in miniaturization
devices owing to its compact dimension, low power con-
sumption, and fine performance. As a typical type of minia-
turization tool, MEMS-based robotic microgripper has been
widely employed in the manipulation of tiny micro-objects,
material characterizations, and so on. This paper presents
the state-of-the-art survey of prevalent MEMS-based actua-
tion and sensing techniques, which can be applied in micro-
grippers. Five main types of actuators are reviewed in this
survey, namely, electro-thermal actuators, electrostatic actu-
ators, shape memory alloy actuators, piezoelectric actuators,
and electromagnetic actuators. A review of recent sensing
techniques is also conducted, which includes four popular
sensing approaches in terms of capacitive sensors, elec-
trothermal sensors, piezoresistive sensors, and piezoelectric
sensors. Their advantages, disadvantages, and applications
have been discussed in detail. Some perspectives on the
future development are presented.
Keywords Microelectromechanical system (MEMS) ·
Actuator · Sensor · Microgripper
 Qingsong Xu
qsxu@umac.mo
1 Department of Electromechanical Engineering, Faculty of
Science and Technology, University of Macau, Avenida da
Universidade, Taipa, Macau, China
1 Introduction
Currently, there is an increasing trend of development on
MEMS in the domain of microassembly and micromanipu-
lation. Because of their miniature size, tiny MEMS devices
exhibit some merits to execute the micro- and nano-scale
tasks [1]. The merits involve light weight, stable perfor-
mance, high resolution, low power consumption, and easy
integration with other devices. In micromanipulation sys-
tem, microgripper is a typical end-effector tool, which plays
an important role in the aforementioned applications [2,
3]. It can be used to execute the grasping-moving-releasing
operation of tiny-objects and also to protect them in safe
condition [4, 5].
According to working principle, the popular actuators
for MEMS grippers can be mainly classified into five cat-
egories, which include electrothermal, electrostatic, shape
memory alloy, piezoelectric, and electromagnetic actuators.
Regarding electrothermal actuator [6, 7], it can generate a
large displacement and force based on the thermal expan-
sion of the materials under a very low excitation voltage.
Besides, the relatively small dimension is another property
of this kind of actuator. However, due to the restriction of
high working temperature, it cannot be widely used in the
assembly of temperature-sensitive objects. Concerning elec-
trostatic actuator [8, 9], it has two different structures in
terms of transverse and lateral comb drives. It owns some
capabilities like high frequency response, low power con-
sumption, and no hysteresis. However, the relative high
driving voltage is the major problem of this type of actua-
tor. In particular, the aforementioned two types of actuators
are prevalent in micro-electro-mechanical-system (MEMS).
2 J Micro-Bio Robot (2017) 13:1–14
As for shape memory alloy actuator [10], it reveals some
advantages such as high recovery force, large deformation
(up to 10% for a single crystal), and a high working den-
sity (2.7×107 J m−3 ). But it is also restricted by some
drawbacks, such as slow speed and low efficiency. More-
over, piezoelectric actuator has superiorities such as large
output force, good operation bandwidth, and very compact
dimension. On the contrary, small displacement from the
actuator is the main drawback, which limits its extensive
application. Electromagnetic actuator can deliver a large
displacement without the influence of nonlinear effect. At
the same time, it also has some merits like no wearing, quick
response, high precision, and easy to control. However, the
relatively large physical size is a big issue of this type of
actuator.
On the other hand, to ensure the safety and accuracy dur-
ing the grasp operation, it is necessary to measure the force
between the two jaws of a gripper. Thus, sensing techniques
need to be considered crucially [11]. Sensors are required
to measure and obtain the feedback information of the grip-
ping force or displacement of the device. Then, the objects
can be protected during the gripping process because of the
sensing feedback. Moreover, in MEMS field, a more pre-
cise sensing method is needed to guarantee the safety of
the grasped object, such as biological cells and blood ves-
sel. The reason is that such fragile objects are easier to be
broken than macro-objects as the gripping force only lies
in the level of micro-Newton (μN). Nowadays, MEMS-
based microgripper with integrated sensors, which provide
high sensitivity and resolution, has found wide applications.
Owing to the integration configuration, the gripper struc-
tures become more compact and stable. Thus, the force data
from the sensors are more reliable. At the same time, it can
also improve the safety when the gripper executes the grasp-
ing operation. In this review, several types of sensors are
summarized, which include piezoresistive sensors [12–15],
capacitive sensors [16–18], electrothermal sensors [19, 20],
and piezoelectric sensors [21].
This paper aims at summarising typical types of actuators
and sensors which can serve MEMS-based microgrippers.
The remaining parts of the paper are arranged as follows. A
review of a variety of MEMS-based actuators is introduced
in Section 2. Section 3 describes different categories of sen-
sors which are applied in MEMS area. A brief conclusion
of actuators and sensors and some further discussion about
MEMS-based grippers are outlined in Section 4.
2 Actuators
In this section, some typical MEMS actuators dedicated
to microgrippers are surveyed in terms of their working
principles and different embodies.
2.1 Electrothermal actuator
Electrothermal actuator works based on the principle of
thermal expansion. When a current passes through the actu-
ator beams, the beams experience a temperature rising and
then cause a deformation. Due to the relative small thermal
strain, it is easy to generate an amplified output force to
produce a large displacement in one specific direction. This
type of actuator can produce a large output force with a rel-
atively low voltage, normally below 10 V. However, thermal
actuator often has the predominant compressive stress in the
beams, and buckling may cause the failure of the structure
[22]. According to the configuration, thermal actuator can
be classified into three types, namely, pseudo-bimorph ther-
mal actuator (U-shaped actuator) [23, 24], V-shaped thermal
actuator[25, 26], and Z-shaped thermal actuator [27], which
are detailed in the following.
2.1.1 U-shaped actuator
The structure diagram of an U-shaped actuator is illustrated
in Fig. 1. It consists of two hot (thin) and cold (wide) arms
with a asymmetric design, which is constrained by two
anchors. When a current flows through the structure, the
higher current density causes more heat and expansion on
cabined hot arm than that on broad cold arm because of the
asymmetric structure. Then, the actuator tip experiences a
transverse motion, which results in an arcing action towards
the side of cold arm. Based on this U-shaped thermal actu-
ator concept, many U-shaped grippers have been developed
in the literature [29–31].
A novel SU8 (Microchem Corp.) polymeric electro-
thermal gripper was invented in [32], which owns the opti-
mized structure and thermal effectively. A scanning electron
microscope (SEM) photo of the gripper is shown in Fig. 2.
This actuator geometry consists of a pair of asymmetrical
micro-beams, which generate the expansion in changeable
cross-section. The deformations of the two tips are deter-
mined by the temperature change between hot and cold
arms. It is fabricated with a particular combination of sur-
face micromachining techniques, that permit the release of
stress-free polymer (SU8)/metal (Au) structures without the
Fig. 1 Geometry of U-shaped thermal actuator [28]
J Micro-Bio Robot (2017) 13:1–14
Fig. 2 SEM photo of a novel SU8 poly-meric electro-thermal gripper
[32]
use of sacrificial layers. Besides, there is no parasitic resis-
tance in the cold arm of the actuator. It can produce a stroke
under a low driving voltage. Experiment results indicate that
such a polymeric gripper can provide a displacement of 262
μm along with a energy consumption of 64 mA under the
driving voltage of 1.94 V.
2.1.2 V-shaped actuator
The V-shaped thermal actuator is shown in Fig. 3a. As
compared with U-shaped one, it exhibits some superiori-
ties, such as larger force and lower power consumption.
Meanwhile, V-shaped actuator has been widely use in
nanopositioners [33] and nano-testing systems [26]. This
actuator presents a symmetric configuration, where two
slanted beams are connected to a central shuttle beam. Rely-
ing on the principle of thermal expansion, the central beam
generates a straight displacement by the two symmetrical
slanted beams. However, it has two main shortcomings.
Fig. 3 a V-shaped thermal actuator; b Z-shaped thermal actuator [27]
3
The first one is that the two slanted beams exhibit some
manufacturing challenges. For example, some small fea-
tures need to be fabricated as glossy surfaces. Generally, the
photolithographic resolution of beam width normally stays
in 2 μm. Another drawback of V-shaped actuator is the
relatively large stiffness [27].
A typical work is reported in the literature [34]. It
presents the design, fabrication, and characterization of
a unique MEMS gripper with integrated actuator by a
novel hybrid design of metallic V-shape actuator (VSA)
and a set of modified Guckel U-shape actuators (mUSA).
The angle between the hot and cold arms of mUSA
has been modified to reduce the desired unidirectional
in-plane displacement for enlarging the gripping range.
Owning to this distinctive structure, it exhibits a great
performance in terms of large tip displacement (173
μm) and good holding force (5 μN) under a rela-
tively low voltage (1 V) with a power consumption of
0.85 W.
2.1.3 Z-shaped actuator
Concerning the Z-shaped actuator, it overcomes the afore-
mentioned problems arising from V-shaped thermal actu-
ator. It works based on the principle which is similar to
V-shaped actuator. As shown in Fig. 3b, the Z-shaped beam
is composed of a central shuttle and two Z-beams in both
sides of the shuttle. The central shuttle is guided by thermal
bending beams. Thus, a linear motion of the shuttle can be
produced when the current passes through the whole beams.
Z-shaped thermal beams have been used as actuators in
MEMS stage design. A MEMS microgripper composing of
a Z-beams thermal actuator is devised in recent work [35].
With the help of a rotating amplifier mechanism, thermal
Z-beams act as the actuating source, which exhibits a large
gripping displacement of 80 μm with a really low input volt-
age of 6 V. Additionally, in order to achieve a sub-nanometer
resolution, a MEMS stage with integrated Z-beams and a
compliant displacement amplification is designed in [36].
With the driving voltage of ±15 V applied, the stage deliv-
ers a motion range of ±1 μm with the resolution around 0.3
nm.
These three types of thermal actuators work based
on the same principle of thermal expansion. U-shaped
actuator is the most commonly used thermal actuator in
microgrippers. However, the restriction of this type of
actuator lies in the relatively large physical dimension.
In comparison with the U-shaped actuator, V-shaped one
can produce a smaller displacement and larger force. In
addition, the fabrication problem of V-shaped actuator
is overcome by Z-shaped one. In the meantime, the Z-
shaped actuator offers a larger range of displacement and
force.
4 J Micro-Bio Robot (2017) 13:1–14
Fig. 4 Two configurations of comb electrostatic drive [41]. a Inter-
digitated comb actuator; b parallel-plate actuator
2.2 Electrostatic actuator
Electrostatic actuator [37–39] has been well developed in
MEMS area, mainly owing to the merits of simple struc-
ture, low power consumption, and fast response. Generally,
the configuration of electrostatic actuator consists of two
multiple-comb parts which are arranged in parallel. They are
called the fixed comb fingers (stator) and movable comb fin-
gers (shuttle), respectively. The stators are fixed by anchors.
Hence, one can easily figure out the function of these two
groups of comb fingers according to their names. When a
driving voltage is applied to the structure, it causes a force
between the two combs and induces two motions in the
directions which are parallel and perpendicular to the comb
fingers. Based on this configuration, electrostatic actuators
can be divided into interdigitated comb actuator [40] and
parallel-plate actuator [41], as shown in Fig. 4.
Some electrostatic actuators have been developed with
the design of rotary configuration. One example is reported
in [42], as illustrated in Fig. 5. It demonstrates a novel
design of an rotary electrostatic actuation microgripper. The
utilization of the designed rotary comb actuators overcomes
Fig. 5 3D sketch of a MEMS microgripper with a rotary electrostatic
actuator [42]
the pull-in problem of microgripper, which is caused when
a large displacement is produced. Hence, this design avoids
the use of a high voltage in power system. A displacement
of 94 μm can be realized with 100 V applied.
A MEMS gripper (FT-G100 FemtoTools GmbH) to exe-
cute dexterous micromanipulation tasks was proposed in
[43], which is equipped with electrostatic actuator and force
sensor. The gripper is made of silicon with an initial gap
between the two tips. This gripper aims at grasping objects
with the range of 1-100 μm via lateral-comb actuator. Con-
cerning its sensing part, capacitive sensor is realized, which
has the resolution of 50 nN.
In [44], a MEMS gripper was fabricated, which was
actuated by electrostatic actuator along with integrated elec-
trothermal sensor. The design goal is to fabricate a reliable
and high precision gripper which can be used in biomedical
and micro-industrial areas. This gripper can provide a dis-
placement of 60 μm with a driving voltage of 100 V to grasp
micro-objects of 50–100 μm size. Due to the high sensi-
tivity and compact size, electrothermal sensor is selected to
measure the gripping force.
As shown in Fig. 6, a MEMS rotary microgripper was
introduced in [45]. Figure 6a and b present two parts of this
gripper, which includes the rotary electrostatic comb-drive
and electrothermal sensor. Based on SOI-MEMS process,
the gripper was fabricated to realize a displacement of 90
Fig. 6 SEM image of an rotary MEMS gripper with integrated
electrostatic actuator [45]
J Micro-Bio Robot (2017) 13:1–14
μm with the actuating voltage below 80 V. Due to the ade-
quate arm length and the biocompatiblity of silicon, this
gripper can be applied to the manipulation of living cells
and bio-samples.
2.3 Shape memory alloy actuator
When experiencing a deformation, shape memory alloy
(SMA) has the capability of memorizing and getting back
to the originally designed shape. This phenomenon is called
“shape memory effect” (SME). Actually, it experiences two
phases, namely, martensite (at low temperature) and austen-
ite (at high temperature). Specially, in the austenite phase,
the material can obtain a large deformation of 10%, and
then recovers to its initial state, which is called “superelas-
ticity” (SE) [46]. Benefiting from SME and SE effects, the
actuator has been used in wide applications, such as medi-
cal instruments, industrial areas, military fields, and MEMS
devices. Specifically, NiTi and NiTiCu are two most widely
used materials for SMA.
In MEMS field, SMA becomes an ideal actuator for
microgrippers, because of its pseudo elasticity, high damp-
ing capacity, and biocompatibility. It has a high output
performance, and supplies an output force which is 400
times larger than that produced by magnetic actuator with
the same volume. However, due to the slow response, SMA
actuators have low power density.
In [47], a MEMS gripper is designed for micro-object
manipulation and assembly. It is actuated by Ni-Ti SMA
spring in cooperation with Si spring to achieve the gripping
range of 120 μm, as shown in Fig. 7. The total dimension
of this gripper is 2730 μm × 1500 μm × 50 μm. The two
jaws are fixed by four Ni-Ti films, which are connected to
the frame. SMA and Si springs have the ability to remember
and return to the positions of the two tips. The heat to actu-
ate the SMA and the feedback of sensor are generated by a
designed control circuit.
A novel SMA micromanipulator was designed in [48]
aiming at moving small objects. A number of SMA actu-
ators and a gripping mechanism were combined to realize
Fig. 7 3D scheme of a MEMS gripper with SMA actuator and silicon
springs [47]
5
the 3-DOF motion. The total size of this device is 33 mm ×
9 mm × 3 mm. The actuators generate two-axial displace-
ments of 7.1 mm and 5.2 mm in x- and y-axes, and offer
the forces of 100 mN and 130 mN in x- and y-axes, respec-
tively. The gripper is designed with an initial open gap of
1.15 mm to execute the grasping operation.
2.4 Piezoelectric actuator
As an ionic crystal with asymmetric unit cells, piezoelec-
tric material has a wide application in actuators and sensors
[49–51]. The working principle of piezoelectric actuator lies
in that when the unit cells experience deformations induced
by the introduced stress, the angles between the positive and
negative ions will be changed. This results in a variable of
vector summation about the electric dipoles. It causes an
electric field following the same direction of the applied
stress in the crystal [52]. PZT is made of lead zirconate
titanate and is the most common piezoelectric actuator for
nanopositioning application.
As an example, a gripper actuated by two multi-layer
piezoelectric actuators was reported in [53]. This type of
actuator offers a larger displacement than piezoelectric stack
actuators. Due to the use of multi-layer piezoelectric ben-
ders, the maximum displacement of finger tips is over 200
μm. In addition, unlike piezoelectric unimorph or bimorph
actuator, such actuator can provide a larger force because
it is made of multiple layers of piezoelectric ceramics.
Another multimorph piezoelectric gripper has been devel-
oped in [54].
As shown in Fig. 8, a piezoelectric microgripper
was designed and fabricated in [55]. Micro-cantilevers,
which are made of sol-gel multi-coated PZT
Fig. 8 3-D schematic diagram of an out-of-plane PZT microgripper
with two cantilevers [55]
6 J Micro-Bio Robot (2017) 13:1–14
(Pb(Zr0.52Ti0.48)O3) films, have an ability of actuating
the gripper to conduct out-of-plane tasks. By utilizing elec-
tromechanical and gripping characteristics, two types of
PZT cantilevers, namely, micro PZT and OPPMG, act as
two support layers. The accuracy of gripping and position-
ing objects was testified by gripping a 100 μm diameter
metallic ball with the actuating voltage of 7 V. During the
experiment, no adhesion problem is resulted from the two
gripper tips and the ball.
A piezoelectric actuation MEMS gripper was manufac-
tured in [56], and the diagram is shown in Fig. 9. The size of
the entire gripper structure is 16.8 mm width, 6 mm length,
and 0.5 mm thickness. This structure consists of five differ-
ent parts, which include piezoelectric actuator, rotary arms,
fixing part, block, and gripping tips. In order to reduce the
adhesion force, this gripper decreases the contact area by
using teeth shape on tips. A displacement of 10.2 μm was
generated by the piezoelectric actuator with the driving volt-
age of 120 V. An amplified gripping range of 142.8 μm was
obtained to grasp objects.
2.5 Electromagnetic actuator
Electromagnetic actuator works based on the principle that
when a current flows through a wire coil, it generates a force
in the presence of a magnetic field [57]. This type of actu-
ator is commonly applied in macroscopic application, as it
can produce a high efficiency and large force. Moreover, it
also can be used in MEMS. In the literature, an advanced
hybrid nanopositioner equipped with electromagnetic actua-
tor was reported in [58], where two voice-coil-type actuators
are employed for actuation. By this concept of actuator
design, a larger displacement is generated with a lower
voltage as compared with electrostatic and piezoelectric
Fig. 9 The structure and basic working diagram of a microgripper,
which is driven by a rear-mounted piezoelectric actuator [56]
actuators. In addition, a superelastic alloy gripper driven by
electromagnetic actuator was reported in [59]. It is com-
posed of electromagnetic actuator, push shaft, and elastic
hinge. With the Lorentz force, which is caused by the cur-
rent flow in a magnetic field, it is able to generate the
gripping range of 300 μm with a gripping force of 18 mN.
2.6 Multi-axis actuator
To accomplish some complex tasks and to acquire com-
prehensive data from the grasped objects, multi-degree-of-
freedom (DOF) MEMS grippers have been designed for
specific tasks in the literature.
The previous work [60] introduces a monolithic design
of a two-axis MEMS gripper, which is actuated by electro-
static actuators integrated with capacitive sensors. One of
the unique characteristics of this gripper is that both arms
are actuated and sensed in two axes. The capacitive sen-
sors exhibit the responsibilities of detecting the position and
force signals in non-contact and contact processes. With a
120-V voltage applied, an x-axis displacement of 70 μm
and a y-axis displacement of 18 μm are generated by the
tips with the force capability of 190 μN.
A gripper for microtensile testing is proposed in the liter-
ature [61]. The structure is shown in Fig. 10, which demon-
strates the monolithically integrated two-axis microtensile
tester. It is designed to detect the internal/external stresses
and some physical parameters of plant cells for establish-
ing an relevant and accurate mathematical model to forecast
the cell growth. With the integrated two-axis tester, the
device enables the measurement of tensility, compression,
and shear forces. In order to determine the stiffness of
plant cells, two end-effectors (tips) are designed with an ini-
tial open range of 30 μm. Two electrostatic actuators are
Fig. 10 Two-axis monolithic microtensile tester which is composed of
two-axis force sensors, two actuators with displacement sensors, and a
pair of end-effectors [61]
J Micro-Bio Robot (2017) 13:1–14
orthogonally arranged to actuate both x- and y-axes with
the displacement range of ±16 μm. The sensing arm con-
sists of two capacitive force sensors, which can detect the
forces with the range of ±60μN and the resolution of 20
nm in x-axis and measure the position in y-axis simulta-
neously. A MEMS gripper with two-axis V-beam thermal
actuators and sensors is introduced in [62], as shown in
Fig. 11. This design aims at measuring soft materials in
two compressive and shear directions. Two orthogonally
arranged V-shaped thermal actuators drive the left gripper
arm in compressive and shear directions. Furthermore, this
gripper uses two nano-Newton-resolution triplate differen-
tial capacitive sensors to test the force in compressive and
shear directions. The resolutions for the compressive force
and shear force sensing are 7.7 nN and 57.5 nN, respec-
tively. However, when the actuators actuate the arm in two
orthogonal directions, the motion coupling problem needs
to be overcome.
To achieve the goal of independent in-plane and out-of-
plane motions, a MEMS gripper with integrated electrother-
mal actuator was reported in [63], which owns two degrees
of freedom. Its geometry is illustrated in Fig. 12. This grip-
per is manufactured by metal-MUMPs technique. It owns
a good flexibility by using multiple materials including sil-
icon nride nickel and polysilicon. A large displacement is
supplied by the thermal actuator. U-shaped actuator, which
contains hot and cold arms, is employed to realize the func-
tion of in-plane movement. For the out-of-plane motion, the
gripper structure is designed with separately arranged upper
nickel and lower silicon nitride beams. There is a joint link
between the nickel and nitride beams at the end to ensure
that the electricity and heat can transmit between the two
beam structures. Thus, it enables the vertical motion of the
Fig. 11 SEM photo of a MEMS microgripper with V-shaped actuator
and two capacitive sensors [62]
7
out-of-plane part. Experimental result shows that the in-
plane displacement of the tip is 82 μm with 0.039 W. In
addition, the out-of-plane swing of the tip is 18 μm when
the input voltage changes from 0 to 90 V (0 to 0.36 W) and
vice versa.
2.7 Summary of MEMS actuators
In view of the different working principles, the actuators can
be mainly classified into five types, namely, electrothermal
actuator, electrostatic actuator, shape memory alloy actua-
tor, piezoelectric actuator, and electromagnetic actuator. The
advantages, disadvantages, and principles of these actuat-
ing methods are discussed in the aforementioned discussion.
For a clear comparison of these five actuation schemes,
their characteristics are listed in Table 1. Specifically, cre-
ative structures can improve the actuator performance to
some extent. The electrothermal actuator exhibits three
kinds of beam structures, i.e., U-shaped, V-shaped, and Z-
shaped beams, respectively. They exhibit different features
although they follow the same working principle. Besides,
electrostatic actuator can change the parallel arrangement
into rotating distribution to satisfy the design goal as shown
in [42]. Therefore, the structure and arrangement design of
actuators can be the breakthrough point in future MEMS
gripper design.
3 Sensors
In this section, typical MEMS sensors for microgrippers are
reviewed in detail.
3.1 Capacitive sensor
Capacitive sensor has been widely employed in MEMS
field. As a relatively simple method, capacitive sensing
technique has a prevalent trend of use in micro/nano-
position sensing device. It usually cooperates with micro-
actuator to realize the high-resolution detection in MEMS
and NEMS systems. Capacitive sensor is also an effec-
tive tool to measure the force ranging from pN to mN
scale [64–66]. Capacitive sensing has the same structure
as capacitive actuator. As a non-contact detecting method,
capacitive sensor follows the principle of measuring the
capacitance change between the stator and electrode, which
is caused by the moving electrode shuttle. Capacitive
force sensors have the abilities of high sensitivity, low
power consumption, large bandwidth, and large dynamic
range. Robustness and drift-free are another two capabili-
ties of capacitive sensors. In contrast, a complex electronics
needs to be considered to suppress the high sensitivity to
noise.
8 J Micro-Bio Robot (2017) 13:1–14

Fig. 12 3-D scheme of a

MEMS gripper which has the
capability of in-plane and
out-of-plane motions [63]

A dual-axis force sensing gripper is demonstrated in
[67], as shown in Fig. 13. This MEMS microgripper is
newly designed with integrated electrostatic actuator and
capacitive force sensor. It exhibits a unique characteristic
of dual-axis sensing by using a single force sensor, which
can detect the gripping force and environmental interaction
force in two directions without interfering. The configu-
ration of the gripper is devised based on the concept of
compliant rotary bearing in cooperation with linear guid-
ing flexure mechanisms. Owing to this concept, the gripper
exhibits a compact size. By applying an input of 72 V, a
gripping range of 63 μm is generated. The force sensor has
the force range of ±144 μN with the resolution of 0.61 μN.
In addition, the sensitivity of the gripping force sensing is
5.5 times higher than that of the interaction force sensing.
3.2 Electrothermal sensor
Unlike other types of sensing methods, electrothermal sens-
ing technique has been investigated for application in
MEMS for just a few years. Some work with the ther-
mal sensing method has been reported in recent works [68,

Table 1 Comparison of five different types of actuation techniques

Actuator type Pros Cons Working principle Examples

Electrothermal Large displacement Low
voltage dimension
Electrostatic Fast frequency response
Low power consumption
No hysteresis
Shape memory alloy Flexibility Low effi-
ciency Large frequency
response
Piezoelectric Large force Good opera-
tion bandwidth
Electromagnetic Large displacement No
nonlinear effect No
wearing Quick response
High precision Easy to
control
High working temperature Thermal expansion [32, 34]
Large dimension Pull- Electrostatic force [42, 43]
in problem Complicated
circuit
Hysteresis Large power Materials deformation [47, 48]
consumption
displacement Piezoelectric effect [53, 55, 56]
Relatively large dimen- Magnetization effect [59]
sion Difficult to manu-
facture
J Micro-Bio Robot (2017) 13:1–14 9

(a)

(b)

Fig. 14 Working concept diagram of two U-shaped thermal displace-

ment sensor [71]

Another thermal position sensor was reported in [72].

The SEM image of the sensor is given in Fig. 15. A ther-
mal chevron actuator in corporation with a thermal position
sensor is illustrated in this work. Two doped silicon beam-
shaped resistive heaters act as position sensors. By applying
an excitation voltage through the beams, the heat of the
two sensors will experience temperature variation which is
caused by the current. There is also a heat sink placed above
the pair of beams, which has a gap distance of 2 μm. With-
Fig. 13 Schematic diagram of a MEMS gripper with a dual-axis
out a voltage applied, the heat sink plate stays at the rest
capacitive force sensor [67] position (middle of two resistor beams), and the resistances
of the sensors remain constant. Once a voltage is applied,
the heat plate moves forward, and then the resistances of the
69]. By utilizing micro-heaters, the displacement of a micro
two sensors will change. Hence, the displacement can be
scanner is measured, which has a fine resolution below 1
measured by detecting the resistance change value between
nm. In [70], a single-beam electrothermal sensor was added
the two sensors. The measuring range of this device is 14.4
in the structure. However, this design did not consider more
μm and the sensor drift is 8.9 nm over 2000 s.
details about the thermal coupling and differential sensing
Electrothermal force sensor is also applied in a MEMS
approach of one-chip sensing. As shown in Fig. 14, the
rotary microgripper in recent work [73], as illustrated in Fig.
thermal sensor is made of single-crystal silicon by standard
16. This gripper has an initial opening range of 100 μm. It is
bulk mircomachining technology. It is composed of two
elongated U-shaped cantilevers. As the sensing element,
the resistive heater is built with moderately doped silicon.
Besides, the support legs are used for electrical leads, which
are fabricated with highly doped silicon. When a voltage
is applied to the legs of cantilevers, the current flow will
cause the temperature increase of the heater. This micoma-
chined silicon displacement sensor follows the principle of
heat conduction from device surface to ambient air, with
the resolution under 1 nm in motion range of 100 μm and
dynamic range of 10 kHz. Moreover, differential measure-
ment structures are employed to minimize the drift by using
a symmetrical pair of sensors. Each sensor has a power con-
sumption of 10 mW and response time (also, time constant) Fig. 15 SEM image of a microgripper with thermal chevron actuator
of about 100 μs [71]. and thermal position sensor [72]
10
Fig. 16 The scheme of a
microgripper with rotary comb
drives and two sets of thermal
displacement sensors [73]
composed of rotary comb drives and two sets of thermal dis-
placement sensors. The thermal principle is similar to that
in [72]. The heat plates are connected to a curved shuttle
and positioned next to the sensors with a distance of 3 μm.
A large displacement of 85 μm is achieved under 80 V and
the sensitivity is 1.95 μN·V−1 .
3.3 Piezoresistive sensor
Piezoresistive sensing technique has been extensively
employed for micro-force measurement. Based on the
piezoresistive effect, which was first introduced by Lord
Kelvin in 1856, it easily offers a transduction mechanism
which can convert the mechanical deformations into elec-
trical signals [74, 75]. Generally, when the element expe-
riences a strain and deformation, the resistance value will
change synchronously. In MEMS field, it is employed for
applications like accelerometer, force sensor [76], gyro-
scope [77], and so on. According to the working principle as
shown in the following equation, the relationship between
the strain and resistance is linear [78].
R L
=G· (1)
R L
Fig. 17 The 3-D diagram of a
piezoresistive cantilever in
MEMS gripper whose
end-effector is composed of four
arm structures. [81]
J Micro-Bio Robot (2017) 13:1–14
where R and L represent the resistance and length, respec-
tively. G is the strain factor. R and L are the change
values of the resistance and deformation, respectively.
Piezoresistive force sensor has been applied in grippers
and other tools in the literature. For instance, a micro-
gripper with integrated piezoresistive sensor is proposed
in [79] aiming at manipulating tiny objects such as bio-
logical cells. Another microgripper is introduced in [80],
which is actuated by a thermal actuator and equipped with
piezoresistive force sensor. It owns a very simple fabrica-
tion process, whereas it has the drawback of low sensitivity,
which cannot be used to detect small force. A sidewall sur-
face piezoresistive force sensor is employed in a MEMS
gripper in [81]. The configuration of the MEMS gripper is
shown in Fig. 17, where the end-effector is composed of
four arm structures. Force sensor cantilevers are arranged
in both sides of the two gripper arms. These sensors real-
ize the detection of force ranging from 5 to 500 μN. The
two arms in the middle part are actuated by electrostatic
comb drive. During the gripping task, the moveable arms
undergo deformations and then move forward to the fixed
arms. These deformations can be measured by the piezore-
sistive sensors which are fixed at the end of the cantilevers.
The deflection and the gripping force are in proportional
relation.
J Micro-Bio Robot (2017) 13:1–14 11

Table 2 Comparison of four different types of sensing techniques

Sensor type Pros Cons Resolution Working principle Examples

Capacitive High sensitivity Large band- Large dimension Complicated μN Capacitance change [67]
width No drift Robustness Fast circuit
response speed
Electrothermal Small dimension Simple struc- Low response speed Large con- μN Resistance change [70, 72, 73]
ture High resolution sumption
Piezoelectric Wide measurement range No Complex manufacturing process μN or sub-μN Piezoelectric effect [79, 81]
extra voltage needed Wide band- Low spatial resolution Cannot
width work in high temperature
Piezoresistive Simple material High bandwidth Sensitive to ambient tempera- mN Resistance change [59]
Flexibility Large frequency ture Hysteresis Large power con-
response sumption

3.4 Piezoelectric sensor 4 Conclusions

Piezoelectric material experiences an increasing interest in
MEMS domain because of its capability of high energy
density and suitability for miniaturization. It has a transduc-
tion mechanism which can directly transfer the mechanical
signal into electrical signal. Such conversion is reversible.
Generally, piezoelectric sensors are used as transducers and
resonators. The measured resonance frequency and ampli-
tude are dependent on the materials and dimensions of the
device, as well as mechanical and interfacial inputs to the
device [82].
As a piezoelectric material, PVDF polymer has a great
stability, flexibility, and biocompatibility. It offers a wide
bandwidth, high linearity, and high signal to noise ratio [83,
84]. In the literature [59], PVDF has been employed to guar-
antee the feedback information of force measurement when
the gripper manipulates a fragile object. This gripper can
achieve a large gripping displacement of 300 μm, and the
maximum gripping force is 18 μN. The piezoelectric force
sensor has the sensitivity of 39.5 mN·V−1 .
3.5 Summary of MEMS sensors
The aforementioned sensing methods all exhibit well accu-
racy and flexibility in micro- and nano-scale force sensing.
The differences among these sensing strategies in terms
of merits, drawbacks and working principles are tabu-
lated in Table 2. It is worth mentioning that the dual-
axis sensing capability as introduced in [67] improves
the safety and accuracy of the microgripper. Hence, it
is predicted that multi-level force sensor will play an
increasingly important role for MEMS gripper design in
the future work. Moreover, similar to actuators, to real-
ize the microgripper’s design goal, creative structures can
also improve the capabilities of sensing part in a positive
way.
It is universally acknowledged that MEMS-based microgip-
per plays a crucial role in micromanipulation and
microassembly domains. This paper conducts a review of
several fashionable actuation and sensing methods related
to MEMS microgrippers emerged in the past two decades.
It is necessary to understand and have a clear comparison
among these tools, because they are the fundamental of
microelectromechanical systems.
A perspective view of the further development on the
actuation and sensing techniques are summarized as fol-
lows.
4.1 More functionality and flexibility
In order to execute various tasks for different applications
such as industry, electronic equipments and so on, different
grippers which have diverse structures cooperated with dif-
ferent actuators and sensors will appear in real life. Also,
the grippers will be applied to not only simple jobs, but also
more complex tasks. In the meantime, microgrippers will
have more degrees of freedom to cater for the requirement
of diverse applications.
4.2 High integration with electronics
The technique of integrated circuit (IC) is the foundation
of MEMS device. Owing to the increasingly mature design
methods and core techniques, design of stable microgripper
system will be realized. Yet, the complexity of the MEMS
gripper design will be continuously increased for the sake
of pursuing higher degree of precision and miniaturization.
Hence, it is expected that MEMS gripper will be highly
integrated with electronics, logic circuits, computing and
decision loops into an IC-based chip with smaller footprint
size.
12
4.3 More intensive competition in marketing
MEMS products have a close connection with the mar-
ket. To cater for the market requirement, it is foreseen that
MEMS products (not only including grippers) will actualize
more functionality, miniaturization, and low cost, which are
a big challenge for other products. Hence, MEMS fabrica-
tion methods and techniques will be developed to a higher
level in next few years to satisfy the market needs.
4.4 Shorter fabrication and manufacturing period
Along with the development on the fabrication process of
MEMS devices, original equipment manufacturers will pur-
sue a shorter manufacturing period and a faster fabrication
speed. Besides, MEMS fabless model will become possible
in the near future.
Acknowledgments The work was support by the Macao Science
and Technology Development Fund under Grant No.: 090/2015/A3
and 052/2014/A1.
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