Title :
System for deposition and characterization of polypyrrole/gold bilayer hinges
Author :
Choi, Edward ; Liu, Yanbing ; Smela, Elisabeth ; Andreou, Andreas G.
Author_Institution :
Electr. & Comput. Eng., Johns Hopkins Univ., Baltimore, MD
Abstract :
We report on a custom designed system for the deposition and characterization of polypyrrole bilayer actuators. Unlike conventional commercial electrochemical cells and potentiostats, the system described in this paper has specifications commensurate to its application and thus can be readily implemented using off the shelf electronic components at relatively low cost. Deposition rates and actuation are computer controlled through a standard data acquisition interface card with a program written in Matlab. We also discuss the design of the masks that are employed to fabricate the polypyrrole structures. This is accomplished through silicon compilation using the CAD software LEDIT (1999) from Tanner Research. We have implemented a selection of parameterized routines in the LEDIT script language LComp that greatly reduces design turnaround time
Keywords :
actuators; cells (electric); coating techniques; data acquisition; electrochemical electrodes; high level languages; masks; polymers; CAD software; LComp; LEDIT script language; Matlab; bilayer actuators; data acquisition interface card; electrochemical cells; gold bilayer hinges; masks; polypyrrole structures; potentiostats; shelf electronic components; silicon compilation; Actuators; Application software; Computer interfaces; Costs; Data acquisition; Design automation; Electronic components; Fasteners; Gold; Silicon;
Conference_Titel :
Circuits and Systems, 2006. ISCAS 2006. Proceedings. 2006 IEEE International Symposium on
Conference_Location :
Island of Kos
Print_ISBN :
0-7803-9389-9
DOI :
10.1109/ISCAS.2006.1693382