Stimuli-Responsive Polymers in MEMS Devices

Due to their unique properties, stimuli-responsive polymers have been attracting considerable attention in biotechnologies and successful applications have already been demonstrated in sensing, intelligent textiles, bioseparation and drug delivery systems. In this paper, as an illustration of CSEM activities in the field of smart surfaces, we present examples of real case applications of responsive coatings, and in particular, we show their possible integration into Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS). Thus, we successively describe the use of stimuliresponsive block copolymer micelles for the fabrication of nanostructured surfaces and for the preparation of suspended nanoporous membranes. We also discuss the preparation and the use of thermally-responsive silicon-based surfaces obtained from poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAM) for application in biomedical microdevices.