Development of bio-mimetic patterned IPMC actuators with multiple electrodes

摘要

The ionic-polymer-metal-composite actuators can easily actualize the bio-mimetic fish-like locomotion owing to their best merit for large deformation. And novel fabrication methods of IPMC patterned with multiple electrodes were developed to apply the different driving waves to the multiple electrodes. Generally, the IPMC actuator has been fabricated in electroless plating technique, while it is high time-consuming process, showing poor repeatability in the actuation performance due to the variables in the process of fabrication. Therefore the several fabricating methods was newly investigated by combining electroless plating, photolithography, physical sputtering and electroplating techniques capable of precisely patterning and actuating of the multiple electrodes. On the whole, four different methods were compared and analyzed in similar thickness level of Platinum electrodes. Consequently, the mixing the electroless chemical reduction and electroplating can be a promising candidate for the low time-consuming method and the better bending performance.