IPN-CP actuators with improved fabrication process

This paper presents a new fabricating technique for building trilayer electro-active polymer actuators made of interpenetrated network of polymers (IPN-CP). This new technique has several benefits comparing to the original one used in our previous work. By using microwaves, we were able to (i) reduce significantly the polymerization, and subsequently the fabrication times (ii) improve our previously devised masking method which allows having integrated wiring and various shaped actuators in the hosting polymer matrix, and (iii) have better reproducibility. All this without altering the performance of the obtained IPN-CP relatively to those made with the original fabrication technique.