The design, fabrication, and testing of a novel bidirectional magnetic microactuator were presented in the paper. The microactuator is composed of an integrated planar coil and a flexible polydimethyl siloxane (PDMS) diaphragm with embedded CoNiMnP-based permanent magnet arrays. There is a 7 × 7 array of magnets in a unit. The PDMS diaphragm is 2 mm × mm × 40 μm and the magnet post is 50 × 50 × 20 μm. Computer simulation was applied to verify the geometrical parameters. Electroplating under external magnetic field is carried out to improve the magnetic properties of the electroplated magnet, including coercivity, remanence and magnetic energy, and so on. The measured maximum coercivity, remanence and maximum magnetic energy were 2623 Oe (208.73 kA/m), 0.2 T (2000 G), and 10.15 kJ/m3 with the magnetic post, respectively. Moreover, and the deflection of the PDMS membrane is proportional to the exciting current. In a case of 0.35 A current, the maximum deflection of the membrane is 45 μm. Adjusting the electroplating mould results in the variation of the electroplated structure, thus the calibration of the microactuator. Due to the biomedical compatibility and simplicity of the fabrication, the flexible membrane-based microactuator is potential to be used as micropump and optical switch, the microelectromechanical system applications.
