A new bistable electroactive polymer for prolonged cycle lifetime of refreshable Braille displays

Ren, Zhi; Niu, Xiaofan; Chen, Dustin; Hu, Wei; Pei, Qibing

doi:10.1117/12.2044978

Cited by 14 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 8 publications

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“…Because the membrane is in a hard state it can sustain the force of a finger. The principle of these bistable diaphragm actuators has been applied to make a page-size 18 ⇥ 18 cells Braille device, although not individually addressable 47 . A SMP dielectric membrane enables the combination of the large actuation stroke provided by surfaceexpansion DEAs, with large holding forces resulting from the high Young modulus of the material in its cold state.…”

Section: B Variable Sti↵ness Actuatorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This opens the door to a broad new range of applications requiring stroke and holding force at the same time, such as Braille displays. However, another impor-tant requirement for this application is the ability to address each pin individually (the 18 ⇥ 18 cells prototype from 47 has 1944 actuators). High voltage switches (transistors) are voluminous and expensive, and are therefore a major drawback for applications requiring large arrays of independent DEAs.…”

Section: B Variable Sti↵ness Actuatorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Miniaturized DETs possess a unique combination of characteristics compared to traditional microactuators, including large strains, short response time, high energy density, low power consump- tion, and resistance to shocks and extreme deformations. Fabrication techniques inspired by the world of microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) allow reproducible and reliable batch fabrication of devices, and enable the design of complex systems composed of many electrically independent actuators patterned on the same substrate, such as braille tactile displays 47 or arrays of microactuators to stretch biological cells 45 . The many di↵erent DET configurations can be split into two main categories depending on how the mechanical deformation of the elastomer is exploited.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Examples of devices relying on the surface expansion mode include diaphragm Braille tactile display 47 , tunable gratings 10 , deformable cell culture systems 45 , or minimum energy structures 50 .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

Small, fast, and tough: Shrinking down integrated elastomer transducers

Rosset

Shea

2016

Applied Physics Reviews

128

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We review recent progress in miniaturized dielectric elastomer actuators, sensors and energy harvesters. We focus primarily on configurations where the large strain, high compliance, stretchability and high level of integration o↵ered by dielectric elastomer transducers provide significant advantages over other mm or µm-scale transduction technologies. We first present the most active application areas, including: tunable optics, soft robotics, haptics, micro fluidics, biomedical devices and stretchable sensors. We then discuss the fabrication challenges related to miniaturization, such as thin membrane fabrication, precise patterning of compliant electrodes, and reliable batch fabrication of multilayer devices. We finally address the impact of miniaturization on strain, force and driving voltage, as well as the important e↵ect of boundary conditions on the performance of mm-scale DEAs.

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Section: B Variable Sti↵ness Actuatorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: B Variable Sti↵ness Actuatorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Small, fast, and tough: Shrinking down integrated elastomer transducers

Rosset

Shea

2016

Applied Physics Reviews

128

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“…[1][2][3] Because of their biomimetic properties, DEAs have been applied to a myriad of biologically and medically related applications. Some such applications have included active microfluidic devices [4][5][6][7][8][9][10] , cell bioreactors 11 , anti-biofouling surfaces 12 , diaphragm blood pumps 13 , refreshable haptic displays [14][15][16] , surgical robotics training 17 , rehabilitation orthotics 18,19 , artificial limbs [20][21][22][23][24] , and soft robots that can walk, crawl, hop, and fly. [25][26][27][28][29] DEAs often require prestrain prior to actuation in order to achieve optimal performance, but rigid support structures can sometimes restrict movement undesirably.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Tubular dielectric elastomer actuator for active fluidic control

McCoul

Pei

2015

Smart Mater. Struct.

Self Cite

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We report a novel low-profile, biomimetic dielectric elastomer tubular actuator capable of actively controlling hydraulic flow. The tubular actuator has been established as a reliable tunable valve, pinching a secondary silicone tube completely shut in the absence of a fluidic pressure bias or voltage, offering a high degree of resistance against fluidic flow, and able to open and completely remove this resistance to flow with an applied low power actuation voltage. The system demonstrates a rise in pressure of ~3.0 kPa when the dielectric elastomer valve is in the passive, unactuated state, and there is a quadratic fall in this pressure with increasing actuation voltage, until ~0 kPa is reached at 2.4 kV. The device is reliable for at least 2,000 actuation cycles for voltages at or below 2.2 kV. Furthermore, modeling of the actuator and fluidic system yields results consistent with the observed experimental dependence of intrasystem pressure on input flow rate, actuator prestretch, and actuation voltage. To our knowledge, this is the first actuator of its type that can control fluid flow by directly actuating the walls of a tube. Potential applications may include an implantable artificial sphincter, part of a peristaltic pump, or a computerized valve for fluidic or pneumatic control.

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Leveraging the Snap Buckling of Bistable Magnetic Shells to Design a Refreshable Braille Dot

Abbasi,

Chen,

Aymon

et al. 2023

Adv Materials Technologies

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A design concept is proposed for the building block, a dot, of programmable braille readers utilizing bistable shell buckling, magnetic actuation, and pneumatic loading. The design process is guided by Finite Element simulations, which are initially validated through precision experiments conducted on a scaled‐up, single‐shell model system. Then, the simulations are leveraged to systematically explore the design space, adhering to the standardized geometric and physical specifications of braille systems. The findings demonstrate the feasibility of selecting design parameters that satisfy both geometric requirements and blocking forces under moderate magnetic fields, facilitated by pneumatic loading to switch between the two stable states. While the study is focused on experimentally validated numerical simulations, it is also identify several manufacturing challenges that need to be resolved for future physical implementations .

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A new bistable electroactive polymer for prolonged cycle lifetime of refreshable Braille displays

Cited by 14 publications

References 8 publications

Small, fast, and tough: Shrinking down integrated elastomer transducers

Small, fast, and tough: Shrinking down integrated elastomer transducers

Tubular dielectric elastomer actuator for active fluidic control

Leveraging the Snap Buckling of Bistable Magnetic Shells to Design a Refreshable Braille Dot

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