Reduction of the Driving Voltage in Dielectric Elastomer Actuators

Stacked dielectric elastomer actuators are fabricated by an automated process using spin coating of uncured elastomers. To improve the performance of these multilayer actuators we present two different ways. Analyzing the automated process reveals nine principal process parameters. With these results we are able to spin thin films with a thickness of less than 5 pm and a thickness variation of about 3%. Secondly, we examine the influence of nanosized particles of metal oxide powder on the permittivity of the elastomer film. Three different materials, namely aluminium oxide, titanium dioxide and barium titanate with a relative bulkpermittivity of about 10, 100, 1000, respectively, are used to increase the overall permittivity of the composite. To describe the resulting performance of an elastomer actuator the figure of merit kappa is introduced.