Conducting polymer microactuators operating in air

We report for the first time on microsized conducting polymer actuators, which operate in air and in liquids. These actuators are potentially useful for a wide range of applications from biotechnology to microrobots. Furthermore, the actuators are fabricated using an excimer laser ablation technique, which does not require clean-room facilities and can provide high throughput production. Preliminary characterization results presented show that the tip displacement of the microactuators is linearly proportional to the magnitude of the input voltage.