Abstract:

Plastic based MEMS technology is under intense investigation since it offers some unique features: a. Material properties such as flexibility and bio compatibility, b. Electrical properties: can be good insulators as well as conductors, c. Optical properties; transparent, opaque and with variable index of refraction and d. Processing properties: can be molded, stamped, can be used in nano-lithography, can be integrated with common metallization and are compatible with most micro and nano technologies.

From electrochemistry point of view we identify two fields of interests:

a. electrochemical technologies for MEMS manufacturing and

b. plastic MEMS devices using electrochemical sensing. Plastic MEMS poses also some severe problems regarding their reproducibility and reliability. We will review plastic MEMS processing, for both thick and thin plastic substrate, using electroless and electroplating metallization methods or electro-polymerization for conducting polymers. Special attention will be given to novel surface functionalization such as plasma treatment, electron bean exposure and self assembled mono or multilayer modifying the plastic/metal interfaces.

Finally few applications will be presented and discussed:

a. Water toxicity sensing

b. Cancer research and inspection.

c. flexible micro motors and d. implanted electrodes for brain research and peripheral nerve signal pickup.