Design, fabrication, and analysis of polymer-based microelectromechanical systems

Microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) use microfabrication techniques originated in the semiconductor industry to produce micro-scale devices in a large-throughput parallel fashion. As such, the development of MEMS devices has largely been based on materials like silicon that are used for semiconductor devices. While this approach has advantages for certain applications, a new set of materials and techniques is needed to produce devices that can be applied to important areas that require robust contact, flexibility, and chemical resistance. Polymer materials offer these characteristics that suggest their use for MEMS devices for water and air flow measurement, robotic tactile sensors, robust electronic input devices, wearable sensors, low-cost disposable pathogen analysis, and many more.;In this work I report research to develop new design methods, materials, processing and fabrication techniques, devices, experimental results, and system development to realize polymer-based MEMS. Polymer multimodal tactile sensing skins modeled on the human sensory skin, polymer cilia based tactile and flow sensors modeled on arthropod hair sensilla, as well as all-polymer tactile sensors and input devices based on conductive elastomers are presented. In order to realize these devices new methods for fabrication on polyimide substrates, photo-lithographic micro-patterning of composite polymers, large aspect ratio out of plane polymer molding, and embedding multiple layers of conductive polymers in insulating polymers were developed. New design methods for metal film on polymer strain gauges as well as design methods for conductive polymer based elastomers are also presented based on experimental results and theoretical validation. The motivation for this work is to realize low-cost, robust sensors that can conform to curved and biological surfaces and that can withstand direct contact with real-world objects and contaminants.