Lifetime of dielectric elastomer stack actuators

Peter Lotz; Marc Matysek; Helmut F. Schlaak

doi:10.1117/12.878954

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28 March 2011 Lifetime of dielectric elastomer stack actuators

Peter Lotz, Marc Matysek, Helmut F. Schlaak

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Proceedings Volume 7976, Electroactive Polymer Actuators and Devices (EAPAD) 2011; 79760P (2011) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.878954
Event: SPIE Smart Structures and Materials + Nondestructive Evaluation and Health Monitoring, 2011, San Diego, California, United States

Abstract

Dielectric elastomer stack actuators (DESA) are well suited for the use in mobile devices, fluidic applications and small electromechanical systems. Despite many improvements during the last years the long term behavior of dielectric elastomer actuators in general is not known or has not been published. The first goal of the study is to characterize the overall lifetime under laboratory conditions and to identify potential factors influencing lifetime. For this we have designed a test setup to examine 16 actuators at once. The actuators are subdivided into 4 groups each with a separate power supply and driving signal. To monitor the performance of the actuators driving voltage and current are measured continuously and additionally, the amplitude of the deformations of each actuator is measured sequentially. From our first results we conclude that lifetime of these actuators is mainly influenced by the contact material between feeding line and multilayer electrodes. So far, actuators themselves are not affected by long term actuation. With the best contact material actuators can be driven for more than 2700 h at 200 Hz with an electrical field strength of 20 V/μm. This results in more than 3 billion cycles. Actually, there are further actuators driven at 10 Hz for more than 4000 hours and still working.

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Peter Lotz, Marc Matysek, and Helmut F. Schlaak "Lifetime of dielectric elastomer stack actuators", Proc. SPIE 7976, Electroactive Polymer Actuators and Devices (EAPAD) 2011, 79760P (28 March 2011); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.878954

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