Ion-implanted compliant electrodes used in dielectric electroactive polymer actuators with large displacement

Metal Ion Implanted Compliant Electrodes in Dielectric Electroactive Polymer (EAP) Membranes

One of the key factors to obtain large displacements and high efficiency with dielectric electroactive polymer (DEAPs) actuators is to have compliant electrodes. Attempts to scale DEAPs down to the mm or micrometer range have encountered major difficulties, mostly due to the challenge of micropatterning sufficiently compliant electrodes. Simply evaporating or sputtering thin metallic films on e...

Multilayer Dielectric Elastomer Actuators with Ion Implanted Electrodes

We present the design, fabrication process and characterization of multilayer miniaturized polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS)-based dielectric elastomer diaphragm actuators. The conductive stretchable electrodes are obtained by lowenergy metal ion implantation. To increase force, decrease the required voltage, and avoid dielectric breakdown, we present here a technique to fabricate multilayer devices ...

Ion-implanted compliant and patternable electrodes for miniaturized dielectric elastomer actuators

This article presents metal ion implantation as an alternative technique to fabricate compliant electrodes for small-size dielectric elastomer actuators. When reducing the size of these actuators to below 1 cm, the ability to pattern the electrodes is added to the need for compliance. Metal ion implantation on Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) layers allows the creation of conductive and compliant el...

Electroactive Thermoplastic Dielectric Elastomers as a New Generation Polymer Actuators

Nonlinear Force Control of Dielectric Electroactive Polymer Actuators

Electroactive Polymers (EAPs) have a great potential to provide smart solutions to engineering problems in fields such as robotics, medical devices, power generation, actuators and sensors. This is because they yield some important characteristics that are advantageous over conventional types of actuators, like: lower weight, faster response, higher power density and quieter operation. Controll...