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  4. Fabrication of zipping electrostatic actuators incorporating inkjet-printed layers
 
conference paper

Fabrication of zipping electrostatic actuators incorporating inkjet-printed layers

Grasso, Giulio  
•
Rosset, Samuel  
•
Shea, Herbert  
January 1, 2021
Electroactive Polymer Actuators And Devices (Eapad) Xxiii
Conference on Electroactive Polymer Actuators and Devices (EAPAD) XXIII

Zipping electrostatic actuators operate by bending flexible electrodes using electrostatic forces. This principle allows the use of a wide range of dielectric and conductive materials. Additive Manufacturing (AM) techniques can be used to fabricate these actuators. The selective direct deposition of multiple materials improves the actuator design flexibility, as customized prototypes can be fabricated without masks and moulds. Here we present the first integration of AM techniques in the fabrication process of Hydraulically Amplified Taxels (HAXELs), a class of electrostatic actuators combining zipping electrodes deformation with the inflation of a stretchable material using fluidic coupling. We use an inkjet printer (jetlab (R) 4 by MicroFab) to deposit Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) as the stretchable material and Ethyl Cellulose as a sacrificial material for fluidic features patterning. We integrate gold-sputtered, laser-cut Mylar foils for the flexible part of the actuator by encapsulating them between the inkjet-printed layers. After dissolving the sacrificial material, a dielectric fluid can be injected in the fabricated actuators. Qualitative evaluation of a fabricated device is reported, showing electrode zipping. The presented fabrication process allows future fabrication of highly integrated actuators having arbitrary shapes.

  • Details
  • Metrics
Type
conference paper
DOI
10.1117/12.2581393
Web of Science ID

WOS:000695318700031

Author(s)
Grasso, Giulio  
Rosset, Samuel  
Shea, Herbert  
Date Issued

2021-01-01

Publisher

SPIE-INT SOC OPTICAL ENGINEERING

Publisher place

Bellingham

Published in
Electroactive Polymer Actuators And Devices (Eapad) Xxiii
ISBN of the book

978-1-5106-4004-7

Series title/Series vol.

Proceedings of SPIE

Volume

11587

Start page

115871O

Subjects

Engineering, Electrical & Electronic

•

Optics

•

Polymer Science

•

Engineering

•

inkjet printing

•

electrostatic actuators

•

fluidic actuators

Editorial or Peer reviewed

REVIEWED

Written at

EPFL

EPFL units
LMTS  
Event nameEvent placeEvent date
Conference on Electroactive Polymer Actuators and Devices (EAPAD) XXIII

ELECTR NETWORK

Mar 22-26, 2021

Available on Infoscience
September 25, 2021
Use this identifier to reference this record
https://infoscience.epfl.ch/handle/20.500.14299/181625
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