Development of actuators using PVDF piezoelectric polymer

Piezoelectricity is the propriety of materials that relates mechanical deformation as a function of applied voltage and vice-versa. The advantage of using these materials as actuators is the fast response and low power consumption when compared with traditional actuators. The piezoelectric polymers are emerging as actuators because they are lightweight, flexible and cheaper then PZT ceramics. But to reach high displacements it is necessary to glue two layers of the material with opposite polarization (bimorph) or bond it with a non piezoelectric surface (unimorph). In this presentation it will be shown a sequence of fabrication of a bimorph actuator using a poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) as material and the theoretical models used to describe the movement. The devices were fabricated using a polymer with 9um of thickness recovered with 200nm of gold layer as electrodes and the design employed was a triangle with 2.2mm of base with 2mm of height. Applying a 170V DC between the electrodes it was observed an 18um displacement in the vertical direction.