Towards fully polymeric electroactive micro actuators with conductive polymer electrodes

The performance of micro devices actuated using electroactive polymers is often limited by the high stiffness of metallic electrodes, which prevents the polymeric components extension. In this work we report on an approach allowing to reduce the use of metals to a minimum by incorporating softer conductive polymer electrodes. A multilayered actuator incorporating polyimide (PI) substrate and a thin electroactive polymer (EAP) layer of P(VDF-TrFE-CFE) squeezed between polyaniline (PANI) electrodes was fabricated and characterized. The PANI layer was electrodeposited on the electroactive structures using cyclic voltammetry. Our results show that while the use of conjugate conductive polymer electrodes is feasible, the influence of the thin metallic seed layers required for electro-deposition is significant. The proposed electro-deposition based polymeric process is highlighted by its simplicity and relatively low cost, compared to common Physical Vapor Deposition processes, and can be extended to other polymers.