AUTHOR=Kohler Alina , Blendinger Felix , Müller Sonja , Mescheder Ulrich , Bucher Volker TITLE=Feasibility of Parylene C for encapsulating piezoelectric actuators in active medical implants JOURNAL=Frontiers in Medical Technology VOLUME=5 YEAR=2023 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/medical-technology/articles/10.3389/fmedt.2023.1211423 DOI=10.3389/fmedt.2023.1211423 ISSN=2673-3129 ABSTRACT=

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.