A transconductive graphene pressure sensor

We present a graphene pressure transducer consisting of an array of suspended circular graphene membranes over 3μm diameter holes in silicon dioxide on degenerately doped silicon. The transconductive nature of graphene allows the change in pressure to be translated into a change in resistance across the suspended graphene membranes. The pressure-induced deflections of the membrane vary the distance between the DC biased silicon back-gate and graphene membrane, changing the effective electric field which results in variations in the resistance of the suspended graphene. Our results demonstrate that pressure sensors constructed with graphene possess potential advantages over conventional pressure sensors such as higher sensitivity with diaphragm dimensions over 200X smaller than that of typical pressure transducers.