Development of dielectric elastomer driven micro optical zoom lens system

Normally, various micro-scale devices adopt electromechanical actuators for their basic mechanical functions. Those types of actuators require a complicated power transfer system even for generating a tiny scale motion. Since the mechanical power transfer system for the micro-scale motion may require many components, the system design to fit those components into a small space is always challenging. Micro-optical zoom lens systems are recently popularly used for many portable IT devices such as digital cameras, camcorder, and cell phones, Noting the advantages of EAP actuators over the conventional electromechanical counterparts in terms of simple actuator mechanisms, a micro-optic device that is driven with the EAP actuator is introduced in the present work. EAP material selection, device design and fabrication will be also delineated.