Material strength examination of thin film PDMS for reliable pneumatic balloon actuator

This paper examines the material strength of thin film PDMS widely used for biomedical MEMS and μTAS. This study focuses on the material strength of PBA membrane. Stress-strain diagram of PDMS is examined through the tensile test. Breaking strength is also estimated with an aim to relate with the fracture of balloon membrane of PBA. As the result of PDMS tensile test, non-linear stress-strain relation could be observed. We defined stress as T and l´/l as λ(here, l is distance between two diamond-shaped gauge marks, l´ is l+Δl). Logarithmic relationship between T and λ plays important role for analysis of mechanical behavior of polymer such as PDMS by the neo-Hookean constitutive equation.