Microsystems are increasingly being applied in harsh and/or inaccessible environments, but many markets expect the same level of functionality for long periods of time. Harsh environments cover areas that can be subjected to high temperature, (bio)-chemical and mechanical disturbances, electromagnetic noise, radiation, or high vacuum. In the field of actuators, the devices must maintain stringe...

This paper presents a novel approach for active structures driven by soft dielectric electro-active polymers (EAPs), which can perform contractive displacements at external tensile load. The active structure is composed of an array of equal segments, where the dielectric films are arranged in a pile-up configuration. The proposed active structure has the capability of exhibiting uniaxial contra...

In this paper, modelling and robust control of a two segment robot arm made from polypyrrole is proposed. Conjugated polymer actuators can be employed to achieve micro and nano scale precision, having a wide range of application including biomimetic robots, and biomedical devices. They can operate with low voltage while producing large displacement, in comparison to robotic joints, they do not ...

Dielectric elastomer actuator (DEA) micro- and nano-structures are referred to artificial muscles because of their specific continuous power and adequate time response. The bending measurement of an asymmetric, planar DEA is described. The asymmetric cantilevers consist of 1 or 5 μm-thin DEAs deposited on polyethylene naphthalate (PEN) substrates 16, 25, 38, or 50 μm thick. The application of a...

This paper describes a nano-scale tensile test to study the fatigue properties of LPCVD silicon nitride thin films using a novel electrostatic actuator design. Mechanical-amplifier devices made in silicon nitride thin films can apply controllable tensile stress (2.0–7.8 GPa) to test structures with relatively low actuation voltages (5.7–35.4 VRMS) at the resonant frequencies of the devices. The...