Electrostrictive microelectromechanical fibres and textiles

• Main Authors: Khudiyev, Tural (Contributor), Clayton, Jefferson Daniel (Contributor), Levy, Etgar Claude (Contributor), Chocat, Noemie (Contributor), Gumennik, Alexander (Contributor), Stolyarov, Alexander M. (Contributor), Joannopoulos, John (Contributor), Fink, Yoel (Contributor)
• Other Authors: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies (Contributor), Lincoln Laboratory (Contributor), Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Materials Science and Engineering (Contributor), Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics (Contributor), Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Research Laboratory of Electronics (Contributor)
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Nature Publishing Group, 2017-12-13T16:48:09Z.
• Subjects: Article
• Online Access: Get fulltext

Microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) enable many modern-day technologies, including actuators, motion sensors, drug delivery systems, projection displays, etc. Currently, MEMS fabrication techniques are primarily based on silicon micromachining processes, resulting in rigid and low aspect ratio structures. In this study, we report on the discovery of MEMS functionality in fibres, thereby opening a path towards flexible, high-Aspect ratio, and textile MEMS. The method used for generating these MEMS fibres leverages a preform-To-fibre thermal drawing process, in which the MEMS architecture and materials are embedded into a preform and drawn into kilometers of microstructured multimaterial fibre devices. The fibre MEMS functionality is enabled by an electrostrictive P(VDF-TrFE-CFE) ferrorelaxor terpolymer layer running the entire length of the fibre. Several modes of operation are investigated, including thickness-mode actuation with over 8% strain at 25 MV m -1 , bending-mode actuation due to asymmetric positioning of the electrostrictive layer, and resonant fibre vibration modes tunable under AC-driving conditions.
National Science Foundation (U.S.) (Award DMR-1419807)
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies (Contract W911NF-13-D-0001)