The bending problem of a film-substrate cantilever with arbitrary film-to-substrate thickness ratio is solved exactly by employing the force equilibrium equation, and then the optimization and application of the bending characteristic of the magne-tostrictive cantilever is discussed. Furthermore, the influence of geometrical and physical parameters of the two cantilever components on the maximum free-end deflection of the cantilever is addressed. The results indicate that as the substrate thickness is kept constant, the greater film-to-substrate stiffness ratio will induce a larger deflection, while for the case of fixed total cantilever thickness, the optimal cantilever deflection is independent of the physical parameters of the materials such as Young’s modulus and Poisson’s ratio.
