Muscle-MEMS - Microsystems engineering for fabrication of liquid crystal elastomers

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This project combines the fabrication and integration technologies of liquid crystal elastomers (LCEs) with the technological capabilities of microsystems engineering and will thereby enable an entirely new type of micro-actuator for MEMS applications. Through the develop and application of wafer-level fabrication, the possibilities for LCE fabrication in micrometer dimensions with high reproducibility will become possible. As a result, considerably larger actuator stroke and greater flexibility in actuator configurations will become possible.To accomplish this, thin LCE films will be synthesized, structured and oriented on substrates at the wafer level. These techniques will require the development of new processing technologies, liquid-crystal orientation methods and novel means for photostructuring these soft and sensitive materials.