This paper presents the development of a magnetostrictive microactuator. The structural and functional requirements are as follows: it must be a millimeter structure and must achieve controllable displacement with nanometer resolution. Finite Element Analysis(FEA) is used to determine the structure with the most uniform and highest magnetic flux density along the Terfenol-D rod. The microactuator prototype 1 is designed and made based on the FEA. It is observed that the microactuator show some level of hysteresis and that it produces 25 newton in force and 3 ㎛ in displacement with 1.5 amperes of current, and resolution of 250 ㎚ per 0.1 amperes.
To improve the performance of the microactuator prototype 1, microactuator prototype 2 is made again with a permanent magnet (PM). It is observed that the microactuator prototype 2 generates 3.3 ㎛ in displacement with 0.9 amperes of current. It means that the micro actuator prototype 2 performs better than the microactuator prototype 1.
