Title :
Multi-Walled Carbon Nanotube Filled Conductive Elastomers: Materials and Application to Micro Transducers
Author :
Engel, Jonathan ; Chen, Nannan ; Nannan Chen ; Pandya, Saunvit ; Liu, Chang
Author_Institution :
Micro and Nanotechnology Laboratory, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA
Abstract :
We report a detailed study investigating the use of multi-walled carbon nanotube (MWNT) filled elastomers to enable sensitive and yet robust MEMS devices. This work is contrasted with previous work using carbon black filling, showing an 8-fold improvement in performance through the use of MWNT. The percolation behavior of MWNT in polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) and polyurethane (PU) elastomers is presented. We have also developed and characterized two devices: (1) MWNT-based force sensitive resistors (FSRs), analogous to polymer piezoresistors; (2) robust collapsible capacitive tactile sensors using soft conductive elastomers.
Keywords :
Carbon nanotubes; Conducting materials; Filling; Force sensors; Microelectromechanical devices; Organic materials; Polymers; Resistors; Robustness; Transducers;
Conference_Titel :
Micro Electro Mechanical Systems, 2006. MEMS 2006 Istanbul. 19th IEEE International Conference on
Conference_Location :
Istanbul, Turkey
Print_ISBN :
0-7803-9475-5
DOI :
10.1109/MEMSYS.2006.1627782
