Mechanical Digital-To-Analog Converters

Abstract

We have demonstrated a technique to create a digitalto-analog converter (DAC) from lever arms and actuator arrays. These DACs take digital electrical signals and produce mechanical displacements at the output. A 3-bit DAC with thermal actuator arrays operating on 5V signals has been demonstrated with 2 states of displacements. This DAC has a least significant bit (LSB) size of 0.74μm, an integral nonlinearity (INL) of ± 0.27LSB, and a differential nonlinearity (DNL) of ± 0.25LSB. The DAC was coupled to a hinged micro mirror to test the dynamic and transient response using a laser setup. Such devices could be used as digitally controlled actuators to drive mechanisms in micro optics, mechanical computing, and micro robotics.