Actuators Electroactive polymers (EAP) are exciting new materials that can be used for actuating in MEMS.

EAPS are subdivided into electronic and ionic EAPs based on their mechanism of actuating. Electronic EAPs include electrostrictive polymers and dielectric elastomers with high operating voltages. Ionic EAP on the other hand depend on mobile ions provides is the cause of actuation in Ionic EAPs, requiring relatively low driving potentials. They include, conducting polymers (CP), carbon nanotubes and electroactive gels. CP actuate by volume changes involved in redox reactions. They are normally used as bilayers with the other material being passive. The requirement of ion source/sink makes them an excellent choice for wet applications. By changing the applied electric potential, the redox state of the CP is altered thereby causing a volume change. The polymer electrolyte is sandwiched between two CP polymer layers which create the bending force. CP is grown on a gold coated Silicon substrate electrochemically from an aqueous electrolyte. Photoresist is used to pattern the device. Release of the actuator is achieved by two methods: Differential adhesion or sacrificial layer. Fig 3 shows a sketch of the fabrication schemes for the differential adhesion method (A to D) and the sacrificial layer method (E to H). (A) Deposition and patterning of the ;5-nm Cr adhesion layer. (B) Deposition of the structural Au layer (;100 nm). (C) Electrodeposition and patterning of the PPy layer (;1 mm). (D) Etching of the final microactuator structure by removal of the excess Au. (E) Deposition and patterning of the sacrificial layer (;50 nm). (F) Deposition of the Cr adhesion (;5 nm) and structural Au layer (;100 nm). (G) Electrodeposition and patterning of the PPy layer (;1 mm). (H) Etching of the final microactuator structure and underetching of the sacrificial layer

Fig 3 A sketch of the fabrication schemes for the differential adhesion method (A to D) and the sacrificial layer method (E to H) (A) Deposition and patterning of the Cr adhesion layer. (B) Deposition of the structural Au layer. (C) Electrodeposition and patterning of the PPy layer. (D) Etching of the final microactuator structure by removal of the excess Au. (E) Deposition and patterning of the sacrificial layer. (F) Deposition of the Cr adhesion and structural Au layer. (G) Electrodeposition and patterning of the PPy layer. (H) Etching of the final microactuator structure and underetching of the sacrificial layer.

Thermal Actuators Thermal bilayer actuators depend on the difference in the Coefficient of Thermal Expansion (CTE) between the two layers. On passing a current, the temperature of the system rises due to joule heating leading to bending of the layer. The combination of large CTE with small Youngs Modulus makes polymers an attractive choice over conventional Silicon based thermal actuator MEMS. A schematic route for fabricating a PDMS/PDMS-carbon is shown in Fig 5

When compared to the existing Silicon based thermal actuators like chevron and heatuator, bilayer actuators gave considerably large displacements for the same power. Chemical Sensors Conducting Polymers are now widely used as sensors for gases. Polymers undergo very specific changes including dielectric permittivity, thickness due to swelling and effective mass when exposed to specific chemicals. These changes are exploited in microsensors as the active sensing component. The most commonly used sensors include chemicapacitive sensors, chemoresistive sensors and field effect transistor (FET) sensors. Chemicapacitive Sensors In chemicapacitive sensors, a polymer acts as a dielectric material sandwiched between two parallel metal electrodes, one of which is porous. When exposed to a gas, the polymer expands and its dielectric constant changes. These two change the capacitance of the sensor thereby enabling detection. Early humidity sensors worked on this principle by using polyamide film. Water when absorbed by the polymer increased its dielectric permittivity of the polyamide thereby increasing its capacitance as shown in Fig 7.

Chemoresistive Sensors.

Chemoresistive sensors utilize CPs whose conductivity changes when a gas is absorbed by it. The sensor consists of a conducting polymer sandwiched between two electrodes on an insulating substrate and exposed to surrounding on one side as shown in Fig 8. Gaseous species change the hole or electron conductivity by donating or accepting electron from the CP.

Fig 8 Chemiresistor. B: bulk of the conducting polymer. S: surface. I: interface with the insulating substrate. C: interface with the contacts. Field Effect Transistor sensors When a gas molecule enters a semiconductor it transfers charge it to and forms charge-transfer complexes between the donor and acceptor molecules. The extent of transfer is governed by the gaseous species capability to donate and the work function of the CP which determines its affinity for electrons. Different vapors affect the change in bulk Work function of the polymer to different degrees which also depends on the initial work function of the polymer as shown in Fig 9. Thus by tailoring the initial work function of the CP, we can make the sensor selective to different gaseous species.

Fig 9 This selectivity has enabled the fabrication of electronic noses comprising of arrays of sensors of various gaseous species. They have been used mainly in the food industry to measure the amount of gases released by bacteria. These sensors may have a narrow but sensitive range or a broad range to detect more species. Osmetech is a leading company manufacturing these sensors with 80-100 different sensor materials for various species and concentration ranges. These have been used to control the aroma of commonly used products like mouth-wash and toothpaste. Tactile Sensors Tactile sensors are immensely useful in areas like robotics, minimally invasive surgeries, virtual reality and industrial automation. Tactile sensors are frequently subjected to overloading and direct contact. Thus large deformability is required. Silicon based sensors are largely ineffective due their brittle nature. Biomimetic skins also need to be flexible and robust. Multimodal tactile skins, capable of detecting surface roughness, hardness, temperature and thermal conductivity of the object in contact have been developed using polymer substrate. The sensor consists of an array of nodes on a polyimide substrate as shown in Fig 1.

Each node has 4 components: Thermal conductivity measurement unit (A), a temperature measurement unit (B) and two membranes with metal strain gauges to measure surface roughness and contact force (C and D). An important use of tactile sensors is emerging in the field of underwater autonomous vehicles (UAVs). Current methods to detect objects in the vicinity of UAV like sonar and optical have severe limitations with resolution and range. Recent studies have found that sonar and light can affect marine life adversely. These methods are energy intensive as they depend on the generation and emitting of waves. Blind fishes navigate in with the help of lateral pressure sensor arrays above and below their head called superficial and canal neuromasts. A novel biomimetic Liquid Crystal Polymer (LCP) sensor

array was developed for underwater sensing using pressure gradients. LCP is a great material for underwater sensing owing to its low moisture absorption coefficient and permeability. It is also resistant to chemical attacks and does not degrade easily in seawater. Also LCP has a lower Youngs modulus which increases its sensitivity when used in a pressure gauge. Fig 1 shows a schematic representation of the array developed. These pressure sensors were able to detect the position and velocity of a cylindrical object towed past it with an error of just 2.5%.