ABSTRACT
Webster’s dictionary simply de nes a muscle as something that produces movement by contracting and dilating. Biologically a muscle c ontracts a nd d ilates d ue to t he rele ase o f c hemicals throughout th e m uscle ber re sulting i n a n ac tion p otential. Similarly, research is being done, and has also been done previously, to create a micro-fabricated muscle whose action potential is generated by electrostatic forces using micro-electronic techniques. e te chnology t hat i s d iscussed i n t his c hapter w ill present h ow M icro E lectro-Mechanical S ystems ( MEMS) a re producing similar results in scalable packages.1−3
A brief biological description of muscle contraction will help understand its relation to synthetic muscle contraction. To excite the muscle for contraction, a motor neuron cell body located in the s pinal c ord s ends moto r neu rons to neu romuscular j unctions on muscle bers. e motor neuron sends an action potential that results in the release of a neurotransmitter acetylcholine. e acetylcholine spreads across the entire sarcolemmal surface and di uses into the muscle ber’s plasma membrane traveling down the transverse tubules. e ac tion p otentials c ause t he endoplasmic reticulum to rele ase Ca2+ into t he c ytoplasm. e calcium t riggers b inding o f m yosin to ac tin, w hich c auses the lament to slide, resulting in contraction of the muscle ber. e release of the contraction is as simple as removing the action potential thereby removing Ca2+ from the cytoplasm.
