5-kV switches on flexible plastic substrate for electro-active polymer actuators

Author

Lacour, S.P. ; Wagner, S. ; Pelrine, R. ; Prahlad, H.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electr. Eng., Princeton Univ., NJ, USA

fYear

2003

fDate

23-25 June 2003

Firstpage

83

Lastpage

84

Abstract

In this paper, we demonstrate high voltage (up to 5-kV) thin film switches made on Kapton foil and their integration into a nine-element EAP actuator array. The DC high voltage is supplied to each actuator through a photoconductive switch, which is addressed with a laser. Each cell of the array consists of a 1-cm/sup 2//spl times/30-/spl mu/m thick acrylic diaphragm and a 310-nm thick amorphous silicon switch.

Keywords

amorphous semiconductors; diaphragms; electric actuators; elemental semiconductors; laser beam effects; photoconducting switches; plasma CVD; polymer electrolytes; semiconductor thin films; silicon; thin film devices; 310 nm; 5 kV; 5-kV thin film switches; DC high voltage; Kapton foil; Si:H; electro-active polymer actuators; flexible plastic substrate; nine-element electro-active polymer actuator array; photoconductive switch; thick acrylic diaphragm; thick amorphous silicon switch; Actuators; Amorphous silicon; Photoconductivity; Plastics; Polyimides; Polymers; Protection switching; Substrates; Switches; Voltage;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Device Research Conference, 2003

Conference_Location

Salt Lake City, UT, USA

Print_ISBN

0-7803-7727-3

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/DRC.2003.1226883

Filename

1226883