Actuated elastomers with rigid vertical electrodes

Abstract

This paper presents a novel design of actuated elastomers using rigid, vertical standing electrodes. The electrodes of high rigidity are designed to have small width, small gaps and large depth in order to produce large electrostatic forces at a moderate voltage, as well as to reduce the constraining effect on the soft elastomers. This novel design embodies lateral stacking to accumulate small strain into an adequate displacement for micro-actuation. Analytical and numerical analyses are performed to evaluate the force-displacement characteristics of the elastomer actuators. It is shown that actuation of the novel design is not limited by the electrostatic pull-in instability, and it is capable of travelling a large range at a high electric field. In addition, feasibility of fabrication processes is studied. It is shown that lateral stacking can readily be realized by filling liquid elastomers into deep, narrow and vertical trenches. A theoretical benchmark comparison with a conventional air-gap electrostatic comb drive indicates that the new elastomer actuator promises great flexibility, large attraction force and robustness against shock and dust blockage.

Dielectric elastomer unimorph using flexible electrodes of electrolessly deposited (ELD) silver

“…It would bend with the induced strain, just like the bimetals. Inferring from Timonshenko's theory [23,24] for the bimetals, the radius of curvature (R) for the elastomeric unimorph is inversely proportional to the longitudinal strain, such that,…”

“…Bending behavior of the bi-layer follows the Timo- best sample before 1st breakdown best sample before 2nd breakdown shenko's theory for bimetals [23,24], such that:…”

Metallization Technologies and Strategies for Plastic Based Biochips, Sensors and Actuators for Healthcare and Medical Applications

“…Scaling laws of the electrostatic force suggest that smaller devices with thinner layers of elastomer can be operated at much lower voltages. On the other hand, breakdown voltages of typical elastomers experimentally observed in micro devices are significantly ECS Transactions, 23 (1) 243-254 (2009) higher than reported at the macro scale ( 14) (see also ( 16,17)). The development of polymeric micro devices imposes several challenges.…”

An in-plane thermal unimorph using confined polymers

“…On the other hand, there remains little lateral expansion, which appears as slight bulging, at the free edges of the bonded polymer. Third, the bonded polymer is reinforced by the silicon layers, resulting in a larger apparent stiffness in the transverse direction [9]. Silicon is favored here over metals as a heat conductor because silicon micromachining (using deep reactive ion etching) can readily form deep trenches, of high aspect ratio, for polymer filling.…”