Development of Largely Deformable Strain Sensor Using Carbon Nanomaterial

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  • YUMOTO Kanji
    Department of Finemechanics, Graduate School of Engineering, Tohoku University
  • OSADA Ryusaku
    Department of Finemechanics, Graduate School of Engineering, Tohoku University
  • SUZUKI Ken
    Fracture and Reliability Research Institute, Graduate School of Engineering, Tohoku University
  • MIURA Hideo
    Fracture and Reliability Research Institute, Graduate School of Engineering, Tohoku University

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Other Title
  • カーボンナノ材料応用大変形ひずみセンサの開発

Abstract

<p>A new tactile sensor with the minimum pressure sensitivity less than 10 kPa has been developed by applying MWCNTs (Multi-Walled Carbon Nanotubes). The sensor was embedded into a highly deformable flexible substrate (PDMS: Polydimethylsiloxane) and the obtained gauge factor of the developed sensor was about 5. Since the electronic properties of MWCNTs vary drastically depending on their shape, it is important to make appropriate aspect ratio of MWCNTs. The aspect ratio of MWCNTs is mainly dominated by their growth condition such as the average thickness of catalyst layer, growth temperature, pressure of resource gases and so on. Thus, the optimum growth condition was investigated for making the MWCNTs with high aspect ratio, in other words, high pressure-sensitivity. A thermal CVD synthesis process of MWCNTs was developed by using acetylene gas. After the synthesis of MWCNTs, flexible isolation material (PDMS) was coated around the grown MWCNT. Then, the interconnection film was deposited by sputtering. After that, PDMS was coated again to fabricate an upper protection layer. Finally, the bottom interconnection layer was sputtered and patterned. The change of the electrical resistance of the grown MWCNTs was measured by applying a compression test in the load range from 0 to 10 mN. It was found that the electrical resistance of the MWCNTs increased almost linearly with applied compressive load and this sensor showed the high load sensitivity of 10 mN that is higher than human fingers.</p>

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