Polymer device, method of manufacturing the same, lense module, and imaging unit

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9891404-B2
Application number	US-201414253565-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 15, 2014
Priority date	Apr 26, 2013
Publication date	Feb 13, 2018
Grant date	Feb 13, 2018

Abstract

A polymer device includes: a pair of electrode layers; a polymer layer inserted between the pair of electrode layers; and an expansion-contraction suppression layer arranged between the pair of electrode layers, the expansion-contraction suppression layer being arranged away from the respective electrode layers, and the expansion-contraction suppression layer being configured to suppress expansion and contraction of the polymer layer.

First claim

The invention is claimed as follows:

1. A polymer device comprising:
a pair of electrode layers;
a polymer layer inserted between the pair of electrode layers; and
an expansion-contraction suppression layer arranged between the pair of electrode layers, the expansion-contraction suppression layer being arranged away from the respective electrode layers, and the expansion-contraction suppression layer being configured to suppress expansion and contraction of the polymer layer,
wherein a thickness of the expansion-contraction suppression layer is one third or less of a laminated structure including the polymer layer and the expansion-contraction suppression layer and a distance from the expansion-contraction suppression layer to at least one of the pair of electrode layers is equal to or larger than 10 μm.

2. The polymer device according to claim 1 , wherein the expansion-contraction suppression layer is arranged in vicinity of a center in a thickness direction in the polymer layer.

3. The polymer device according to claim 2 , wherein a separation distance from one electrode layer of the pair of electrode layers to the expansion-contraction suppression layer is substantially equal to a separation distance from the other electrode layer of the pair of electrode layers to the expansion-contraction suppression layer.

4. The polymer device according to claim 1 , wherein the expansion-contraction suppression layer has ion conductivity.

5. The polymer device according to claim 4 , wherein the expansion-contraction suppression layer is configured of ion conductive resin and one of a fibrous film and a porous film.

6. The polymer device according to claim 1 , wherein the expansion-contraction suppression layer is arranged in part or all of a formation region of the polymer layer.

7. The polymer device according to claim 6 , wherein the expansion-contraction suppression layer is arranged in part of the formation region of the polymer layer and is arranged substantially isotropically.

8. The polymer device according to claim 6 , wherein the expansion-contraction suppression layer has an anisotropic shape extending along a predetermined direction in the formation region of the polymer layer.

9. The polymer device according to claim 1 , wherein
the expansion-contraction suppression layer is configured of a laminated structure including a plurality of layers, and
a plurality of types of expansion-contraction suppression directions are provided in the laminated structure as a whole.

10. The polymer device according to claim 9 , wherein the plurality of types of the expansion-contraction suppression directions are substantially isotropic as a whole.

11. The polymer device according to claim 9 , wherein
the laminated structure is configured of three or more layers, and
an outside layer in the laminated structure has the expansion-contraction suppression direction that is different from the expansion-contraction suppression direction of a middle layer in the laminated structure.

12. The polymer device according to claim 1 , wherein
the polymer device has an anisotropic shape extending along a predetermined direction, and
a expansion-contraction suppression direction in the expansion-contraction suppression layer is substantially equal to the predetermined direction.

13. The polymer device according to claim 1 , wherein the expansion-contraction suppression layer suppresses expansion and contraction in an in-layer direction in the polymer layer.

14. The polymer device according to claim 13 , wherein the expansion-contraction suppression layer has lower linear expansion coefficient and higher Young's modulus compared to the polymer layer.

15. The polymer device according to claim 1 , wherein the polymer device is configured as one of a polymer actuator device and a polymer sensor device.

16. The polymer device according to claim 15 , wherein the polymer actuator device drives one of a lens and an imaging device.

17. A lens module comprising:
a lens; and
a drive unit configured with use of a polymer device, and the drive unit being configured to drive the lens,
the polymer device including
a pair of electrode layers,
a polymer layer inserted between the pair of electrode layers, and
an expansion-contraction suppression layer arranged between the pair of electrode layers, the expansion-contraction suppression layer being arranged away from the respective electrode layers, and the expansion-contraction suppression layer being configured to suppress expansion and contraction of the polymer layer,
wherein a thickness of the expansion-contraction suppression layer is one third or less of a laminated structure including the polymer layer and the expansion-contraction suppression layer and a distance from the expansion-contraction suppression layer to at least one of the pair of electrode layers is equal to or larger than 10 μm.

18. An imaging unit comprising:
a lens;
an imaging device configured to obtain an imaging signal of an image formed by the lens; and
a drive unit configured with use of a polymer device, and the drive unit being configured to drive one of the lens and the imaging device, the polymer device including
a pair of electrode layers,
a polymer layer inserted between the pair of electrode layers, and
an expansion-contraction suppression layer arranged between the pair of electrode layers, the expansion-contraction suppression layer being arranged away from the respective electrode layers, and the expansion-contraction suppression layer being configured to suppress expansion and contraction of the polymer layer,
wherein a thickness of the expansion-contraction suppression layer is one third or less of a laminated structure including the polymer layer and the expansion-contraction suppression layer and a distance from the expansion-contraction suppression layer to at least one of the pair of electrode layers is equal to or larger than 10 μm.

19. The polymer device according to claim 1 , wherein the expansion-contraction suppression layer includes an inorganic fiber.

20. The polymer device according to claim 1 , wherein the expansion-contraction suppression layer is made of a material having linear expansion coefficient of a vale from 10×10 −6 to 50×10 −6 (/deg C.) both inclusive and the polymer layer is made of a material having linear expansion coefficient of about 100×10 −6 (/deg C.).

21. The polymer device according to claim 20 , wherein the expansion-contraction suppression layer has an area expansion rate of a value from about 0 to 5% both inclusive, and the polymer layer has an area expansion rate of a value equal to or larger than 10%.

22. The polymer device according to claim 21 , wherein the expansion-contraction suppression layer has a Young's modulus of a value from about 1 to 10 GPa both inclusive, and the polymer layer has a Young's modulus of a value from about 0.2 to 0.5 GPa both inclusive.

Assignees

• Dexerials Corp

Inventors

• Nagai Nobuyuki
• Ishida Takehisa
• Kato Yusaku
• Kawabe Hideo
• Morita Masayoshi

Classifications

• H01L41/193

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H01L41/22

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H01L41/083

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H01L41/0471

  Electricity · mapped topic

• Y10T29/42

  Piezoelectric device making · CPC title