Fabrication of strongly anchored, high aspect ratio elastomeric microwires for mechanical and optical applications

Abstract

We present a new technique for fabricating microwires with high elasticity and aspect ratio. Thanks to the adoption of lost-wax casting in the fabrication, the microwires can be directly grown from their supporting structure in the out-of-plane, surface-normal direction, automatically accomplishing strong, monolithic anchoring. The microwires can also be anchored at both ends in an arrayed format, making themselves more useful for mechanical and optical applications. Using the new technique, we fabricated arrays of poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) microwires 150–250 µm thick and 2–20 mm long. The microwires can withstand >400% elongations and >70 mN of pulling force with little degradation in their surface smoothness. Optical characterizations revealed that the PDMS microwires can function as flexible lightpipes connecting two points in miniaturized systems.