Bioinspired microactuators for zero-power heat flux regulation

Abstract

Ultra-low power devices including circuits, sensors and analytical microfluidics rely on an optimized thermal operation point. This paper reports on a bioinspired and zero-power approach to adjust the heat flux through a heatsink using temperature sensitive microactuators. We replicate the mammal piloerection mechanism for thermoregulation with bimorph microhairs fabricated from polyimide and PVDF-TRFE copolymer. The actuators feature a very high temperature sensitivity (SD = 0.053 1/K) that enables a number of other actuator applications such as switches, fluidics and optics.