Patent ID: 6985651

Claim:
A thermal actuator ( 900 ) comprising: a substrate having a surface; a first support and a second support disposed on the surface and extending orthogonally therefrom; a beam ( 910 ) extending between the first support and the second support, the beam having a first side ( 911 ), a second side ( 912 ), a beam length ( 918 ) and a beam mid-point ( 919 ), the beam being substantially straight along the first side ( 911 ); the beam comprised of a plurality of beam segments ( 920 , 921 , 922 , 923 , 924 ), each beam segment of the plurality of beam segments having a beam segment neutral axis ( 913 , 914 , 915 , 916 , 917 ), the beam thus forming a corresponding plurality of beam segment neutral axes; wherein the plurality of beam segment neutral axes corresponding to the beam vary along the beam length based on a predetermined pattern; so that a heating of the beam causes a beam buckling and the beam mid-point to translate in a predetermined direction ( 948 ) generally normal to and outward from the second side; wherein the predetermined pattern is characterized in that, along the beam length from the first support to the beam mid-point, beam segment neutral axes corresponding to successive beam segments are not offset towards the first side and at least sometimes are offset towards the second side, and along the beam length from the beam mid-point to the second support, beam segment neutral axes corresponding to successive beam segments are not offset towards the second side and at least sometimes are offset towards the first side.