Polymer based MEMS and microfluidic devices have the advantages of mechanical flexibility, lower fabrication cost and faster processing over silicon based ones. Also, many polymer materials are considered biocompatible and can be used in biological applications. A valuable class of polymers for microfabricated devices is piezoelectric functional polymers. In addition to the normal advantages of polymers, piezoelectric polymers can be directly used as an active material in different transduction applications. This paper gives an overview of piezoelectric polymers based on their operating principle. This includes three main categories: bulk piezoelectric polymers, piezocomposites and voided charged polymers. State-of-the-art piezopolymers of each category are presented with a focus on fabrication techniques and material properties. A comparison between the different piezoelectric polymers and common inorganic piezoelectric materials (PZT, ZnO, AlN and PMN?PT) is also provided in terms of piezoelectric properties. The use of piezopolymers in different electromechanical devices is also presented. This includes tactile sensors, energy harvesters, acoustic transducers and inertial sensors.

https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/0964-1726/23/3/033001/pdf

A review of piezoelectric polymers as functional materials for electromechanical transducers

Due to the trend of miniaturization of devices, micromanipulation has been a hot topic in the last two decades. Unlike the macro world, the micro object is easy to be damaged if the contact force is not reliably detected and controlled. Hence, micro-force sensing is of great importance in micromanipulation, microassembly, medical applications, biomedical applications, materials science, dimension measurements and MEMS/NEMS for protecting micro-parts and micro-gripper from being damaged and ensuring the success of the manipulation process. This paper presents a survey of the recent methods of micro-force sensing. The working principle, detection accuracy, advantage and disadvantage of seven widely used force sensing methods are presented. Typical applications of each method in micro-assembly and micromanipulation are discussed. In addition, the comparisons among different kinds of force sensing approaches have been addressed. Moreover, another five promising micro-force sensing methods, which are confined to special component measurements or not widely used, are briefly introduced. Furthermore, two popular types of commercial micro-force sensors are listed to provide a guideline of selection for a specific application. The presented state-of-the-art overview is helpful to those engaged in micro-force sensing area to know the recent development and research tendency on micro-force sensing.

An overview of micro-force sensing techniques

This paper reports a systematic optimization of processing conditions of PVDF-TrFE piezoelectric thin films, used as integrated transducers in organic MEMS resonators. Indeed, despite data on electromechanical properties of PVDF found in the literature, optimized processing conditions that lead to these properties remain only partially described. In this work, a rigorous optimization of parameters enabling state-of-the-art piezoelectric properties of PVDF-TrFE thin films has been performed via the evaluation of the actuation performance of MEMS resonators. Conditions such as annealing duration, poling field and poling duration have been optimized and repeatability of the process has been demonstrated.

/pdf/optimization-of-pvdf-trfe-processing-conditions-for-the-2vb59v48kd.pdf

Optimization Of PVDF-TrFE Processing Conditions For The Fabrication Of Organic MEMS Resonators

Piezoelectric energy harvesters are promising transducers for supplying low-power mobile/portable electronics, wearable and implantable devices, or for autonomous wireless sensors and microsystems, which are of increasing importance for monitoring environmental and structural health, sensing in automotive applications, human health and wellness. One of the main requirements for such applications is the ability to develop piezoelectric materials and devices generating enough voltage/power even from tiny mechanical or biomechanical excitations at extremely low frequencies and out-of-resonance. In addition to high performance, wearable devices and medical implants require biocompatibility of materials/devices in the long term. This paper reviews recent advances on biocompatible, flexible, and compliant energy harvesters based on piezoelectric thin films scavenging energy from (bio)mechanical movements or flows induced deformations.

Biocompatible, Flexible, and Compliant Energy Harvesters Based on Piezoelectric Thin Films

The technological development of piezoelectric materials is crucial for developing wearable and flexible electromechanical devices. There are many inorganic materials with piezoelectric effects, such as piezoelectric ceramics, aluminum nitride and zinc oxide. They all have very high piezoelectric coefficients and large piezoelectric response ranges. The characteristics of high hardness and low tenacity make inorganic piezoelectric materials unsuitable for flexible devices that require frequent bending. Polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) and its derivatives are the most popular materials used in flexible electromechanical devices in recent years and have high flexibility, high sensitivity, high ductility and a certain piezoelectric coefficient. Owing to increasing the piezoelectric coefficient of PVDF, researchers are committed to optimizing PVDF materials and enhancing their polarity by a series of means to further improve their mechanical-electrical conversion efficiency. This paper reviews the latest PVDF-related optimization-based materials, related processing and polarization methods and the applications of these materials in, e.g., wearable functional devices, chemical sensors, biosensors and flexible actuator devices for flexible micro-electromechanical devices. We also discuss the challenges of wearable devices based on flexible piezoelectric polymer, considering where further practical applications could be.

https://www.mdpi.com/2072-666X/11/12/1076/pdf

Composites, Fabrication and Application of Polyvinylidene Fluoride for Flexible Electromechanical Devices: A Review.

A polymer-based sensor for low frequency acceleration detection is fabricated by using microinjection molding technologies. Finite Element simulations and characterization of the sensing functionality are done. Due to an out-of-plane acceleration a force is applied to a seismic mass (length and width each 3.2 mm, thickness 1 mm), which leads to a deformation of a connected plate with dimensions of 1 mm × 1 mm × 50 μm. Thus, charge separation at the electrodes of integrated piezoelectric polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) copolymer sheets occur and can be measured as sensor signal. A charge sensitivity of 0.57 pC/g is determined which is in good agreement with the simulation results. A resonance frequency of 660 Hz was measured. Furthermore, the sensor concept as well as preparation technologies to assemble a compound structure containing piezoelectric layers and the system integration by micro injection molding are discussed. In addition, different bonding techniques for the assembly of the functional components are investigated and described.

Integration of piezoelectric polymer transducers into microsystems for sensing applications

Fluidic Actuated Flow Control (FAFC) has been introduced as a technology that influences the boundary layer by actively blowing air through slots or holes in the aircraft skin or wind turbine rotor blade. Modern wing structures are or will be manufactured using composite materials. In these state of the art systems, AFC actuators are integrated in a hybrid approach. The new idea is to directly integrate the active fluidic elements (such as SJAs and PJAs) and their components in the structure of the airfoil. Consequently, the integration of such fluidic devices must fit the manufacturing process and the material properties of the composite structure. The challenge is to integrate temperature-sensitive active elements and to realize fluidic cavities at the same time. The transducer elements will be provided for the manufacturing steps using roll-to-roll processes. The fluidic parts of the actuators will be manufactured using the MuCell® process that provides on the one hand the defined reproduction of the fluidic structures and, on the other hand, a high light weight index. Based on the first design concept, a demonstrator was developed in order to proof the design approach. The output velocity on the exit was measured using a hot-wire anemometer.

Integration of fluidic jet actuators in composite structures

Synthetic Jet Actuators (SJA) are micro fluidic devices with low power and high compactness. They are used for different applications that require a directed air flow. These kind of fluidic generators require zero mass input and produces non-zero momentum output. The classic design of such an actuator consists of a membrane located on one wall of a small cavity and an orifice that is typically on the opposite side of the membrane. In the new SJA concept a Helmholtz resonator is equipped with two transducers to increase the performance of the actuator. The piezoelectric membranes generate the volumetric flow symmetrically from both sides of the chamber. A common outlet connects them to the acoustic far field. A network model [1] was used for designing and optimizing the SJA. Based on this, a doublewall actuator (DWSJA) was developed. The simulation results show that using two transducers does not fully redouble the exit velocity [2], but it still shows major improvement in comparison to conventional SJA with single transducers.

Development and test of synthetic jet actuators based on dual transducer concept

Systems for in-vitro diagnostics are of great interest especially in the point-of-care diagnostic market. Specialized integrated approaches have already been developed and successfully marketed, but were mainly focused on basic blood parameter determination. This paper describes a new, more flexible approach for an in-vitro diagnostic cartridge, which is able to hold different types of sensors (optical and electrochemical), integrated reagents as well as integrated microfluidic actuators. The platform will be capable of running both protein and nucleic acid analysis.

Highly integrated polymer-based technology platform for in-vitro diagnostics

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Papers

Integration of piezoelectric polymer transducers into microsystems for sensing applications

Integration of fluidic jet actuators in composite structures

Development and test of synthetic jet actuators based on dual transducer concept

Highly integrated polymer-based technology platform for in-vitro diagnostics