Development Of Micro-Magnets For The Electromagnetic Transduction Of MEMS

This paper presents a new class of high-performance permanent micro-magnets based on the controlled assembly of cobalt nanorods for the electromagnetic transduction of MEMS. Micromagnets are fabricated using a low temperature fabrication process that yields a dense material exhibiting high coercive field and remanence to saturation magnetization ratio. The cartography of the magnetic induction produced by the sub-millimeter size magnets was obtained using a scanning Hall effect micro-probe microscope. Silicon microcantilevers placed in the vicinity of these magnets were successfully actuated using the Lorentz force with low currents. The good signal to noise ratio measured at resonance demonstrates the potentiality of these nanostructured micro-magnets.