Frontiers in Medical Technology (Nov 2023)

Feasibility of Parylene C for encapsulating piezoelectric actuators in active medical implants

  • Alina Kohler,
  • Alina Kohler,
  • Alina Kohler,
  • Felix Blendinger,
  • Sonja Müller,
  • Sonja Müller,
  • Ulrich Mescheder,
  • Volker Bucher

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3389/fmedt.2023.1211423
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 5

Abstract

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Parylene C is well-known as an encapsulation material for medical implants. Within the approach of miniaturization and automatization of a bone distractor, piezoelectric actuators were encapsulated with Parylene C. The stretchability of the polymer was investigated with respect to the encapsulation functionality of piezoelectric chips. We determined a linear yield strain of 1% of approximately 12-µm-thick Parylene C foil. Parylene C encapsulation withstands the mechanical stress of a minimum of 5×105 duty cycles by continuous actuation. The experiments demonstrate that elongation of the encapsulation on piezoelectric actuators and thus the elongation of Parylene C up to 0.8 mm are feasible.

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