Top-down Approach for the Direct Synthesis, Patterning, and Operation of Artificial Micromuscles on Flexible Substrates

Ali Maziz (1) , Cedric Plesse , Caroline Soyer (2, 3) , Eric Cattan (2, 3) , Frederic Vidal

1 LPPI - Laboratoire de Physico-chimie des Polymères et des Interfaces
2 IEMN - Institut d’Électronique, de Microélectronique et de Nanotechnologie - UMR 8520
3 MAMINA - IEMN - Matériaux et Acoustiques pour MIcro et NAno systèmes intégrés - IEMN

Recent progress in the field of microsystems on flexible substrates raises the need for alternatives to the stiffness of classical actuation technologies. This paper reports a top-down process to microfabricate soft conducting polymer actuators on substrates on which they ultimately operate. The bending microactuators were fabricated by sequentially stacking layers using a layer polymerization by layer polymerization of conducting polymer electrodes and a solid polymer electrolyte. Standalone microbeams thinner than 10 μm were fabricated on SU-8 substrates associated with a bottom gold electrical contact. The operation of microactuators was demonstrated in air and at low voltage (±4 V).

Domaines: Chimie; Sciences de l'ingénieur [physics]

Ali Maziz, Cedric Plesse, Caroline Soyer, Eric Cattan, Frederic Vidal. Top-down Approach for the Direct Synthesis, Patterning, and Operation of Artificial Micromuscles on Flexible Substrates. ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, 2016, 3, pp.1559-1564. ⟨10.1021/acsami.5b09577⟩. ⟨hal-02980109⟩