Patterning Highly Conducting Conjugated Polymer Electrodes for Soft and Flexible Microelectrochemical Devices

Abstract

There is a need for soft actuators in various biomedical applications to manipulate delicate objects such as cells and tissues. Soft actuators are able to adapt to any shape and limit the stress applied to delicate objects. Conjugated polymer (CP) actuators, especially in the so-called trilayer configuration, are interesting candidates for driving such micromanipulators. However, challenges involved in patterning the electrodes in a trilayer with individual contact have prevented further development of soft micromanipulators based on CP actuators. To allow such patterning, two printing-based patterning techniques have been developed. First, an oxidant layer is printed using either syringe-based printing or microcontact printing, followed by vapor-phase polymerization of the CP. Submillimeter patterns with electronic conductivities of 800 S·cm are obtained. Next, laser ablation is used to cleanly cut the final device structures including the printed patterns, resulting in fingers with individually controllable digits and miniaturized hands. The methods presented in this paper will enable integration of patterned electrically active CP layers in many types of complex three-dimensional structures.

Nonlinear dynamic modeling of ultrathin conducting polymer actuators including inertial effects

“…However, the fabrication process of these actuators normally requires manual handling, which reduces the reproducibility and makes it difficult to fabricate a very thin structures needed when for rapid responses. A new clean-room compatible process, referred to as layer-by-layer [18,26,27], has recently been demonstrated. This technique eliminates the need for manual handling and promises to make the fabrication of CP actuators highly automated.…”

Modeling and Experimental Analysis of the Mass Loading Effect on Micro-Ionic Polymer Actuators Using Step Response Identification

“…Among the ionic actuators that operate in air [20] and host their ionic liquid [21], [22], poly (3,4 ethylene dioxythiopene) (PEDOT)-based actuators have received considerable attention due to their low density, biocompatibility [23], high reversible, and fast-switching redox processes [24]. Additionally, these actuators have a long life cycle (7 × 10 6 cycles at f = 10 Hz) without delamination or degradation [25] and require low operating voltages (typically ≤ 3 V) [26] and a low frequency bandwidth (0.01 Hz-0.5 Hz) [27]. Due to these advantages, PEDOT-based actuators are promising candidates to enable a wide range of microscale applications [25], [28].…”

“…Additionally, these actuators have a long life cycle (7 × 10 6 cycles at f = 10 Hz) without delamination or degradation [25] and require low operating voltages (typically ≤ 3 V) [26] and a low frequency bandwidth (0.01 Hz-0.5 Hz) [27]. Due to these advantages, PEDOT-based actuators are promising candidates to enable a wide range of microscale applications [25], [28]. To fully realize the potential of these materials, a novel reproducible clean-room compatible process has been demonstrated for fabricating trilayer actuators by stacking each layer sequentially and obtaining an interpenetrated architecture [29] (Fig.…”

Soft parallel manipulator fabricated by additive manufacturing

“…However, this requires a clean room facility and is also both a timeconsuming and expensive approach. Recently inkjet and syringe-based printing of conducting polymer actuators have been reported [10][11][12][13]. Compared to cleanroom fabrication, these printing techniques are low cost, high speed, and have high precision and it can be used in linear arrays for high throughput fabrication.…”