Development of polypyrrole based solidstate on-chip microactuators using photolithography

There is a need for soft microactuators, especially for biomedical applications. We have
developed a microfabrication process to create such soft, on-chip polymer based microactuators
that can operate in air. The on-chip microactuators were fabricated using standard
photolithographic techniques and wet etching, combined with special designed process to
micropattern the electroactive polymer polypyrrole that drives the microactuators. By
immobilizing a UV-patternable gel containing a liquid electrolyte on top of the electroactive
polypyrrole layer, actuation in air was achieved although with reduced movement. Further
optimization of the processing is currently on-going. The result shows the possibility to batch
fabricate complex microsystems such as microrobotics and micromanipulators based on these
solid-state on-chip microactuators using microfabrication methods including standard
photolithographic processes.