Energen has embarked on an ambitious program to exploit the potential of magnetic smart materials in thin film form, and apply the core technology to different products through collaboration with diverse partners. Smart magnetic films can be engineered to have the following compelling properties:

• Selective actuation without physical contact
• Low voltage operation
• Ability to generate high force motion
• Compatibility with flexible substrates
• Ability to retain shape until actively reversed

The application potential of smart magnetic films is broad, impacting a range of length scales and industries. Potential applications include but are not limited to chemical and biological sensors, microfluidics, membrane optics, and inflatable wings and structures.

Passive Sensors

By depositing smart magnetic films on passive chips with no power source, one could enable cheap, disposable multi-agent detectors for chemicals or bio-toxins that can be worn like a button by humans. The sensors might consist of an array of micro-reservoirs, each with a selectively actuated “cover”. In use, the buttons are distributed to personnel with selected covers opened for sampling, then closed at some collection point to allow processing at a later time. Since the actuation mechanism is a separate device, these chips can potentially be made very compact and inexpensive.

Microfluidics

Energen’s technology could be applied to flow control of very small volumes of fluid. By developing valves based on smart magnetic films, one is freed from bulky pressure manifolds as well as the design constraints imposed by electrostatic valves. In addition to traditional bi-stable valves, one can envision coating channel walls with smart films and controlling flow by actively changing channel widths.

Membrane Structures

Shape control of structures is an example of a technology area with a completely different length scale from the other examples. Airborne and space-deployable structures consist of polymer membranes and are combined ideally with a conformal low-mass actuation and feedback mechanism that can monitor shape and change it actively. Examples include solar sails, radar-based applications, optical mirrors, ballistics guidance structures, wings for micro-unmanned aerial vehicles, and many others.

See Application Note for detailed information.