Title :
Highly sensitive pressure sensor using Au patterned polydimethylsiloxane membrane for biosensing applications: Correlation of sensitivity and effective sensing range with membrane thickness
Author :
Yihao Zhu ; Koley, Goutam
Author_Institution :
Dept. of Electr. Eng., Univ. of South Carolina, Columbia, SC, USA
Abstract :
A highly sensitive pressure sensor using gold film patterned on polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) membrane has been developed and characterized. Strain induced changes in Au film resistance was used to perform quantitative measurement of absolute pressure. Typical sensitivities of the sensors with 3 mm x 3 mm footprint, fabricated using 50, 100, and 200 μm thick PDMS films, were found to be very high at 0.1/KPa, 0.056/KPa and 0.012/KPa, yielding very high gauge factors of 370, 180 and 70, respectively. We found that the device sensitivity and effective sensing range for reliable operation are closely correlated with the PDMS membrane thickness. Thinner membrane offers higher sensitivity but lower effective sensing range, which presents us a design tradeoff for desired sensor performance. This experiment observation also corresponds well to the results obtained from COMSOL based finite element simulation.
Keywords :
artificial organs; finite element analysis; gold; polymers; pressure sensors; Au; COMSOL; PDMS membrane; biosensing application; design tradeoff; effective sensing range; finite element simulation; highly sensitive pressure sensor; membrane thickness; patterned polydimethylsiloxane membrane; quantitative measurement; size 100 mum; size 200 mum; size 3 mm; size 50 mum; strain induced resistance change; Biomembranes; Gold; Mercury (metals); Resistors; Sensitivity; Sensors; Strain; PDMS; effective sensing range; membrane thickness; pressure; resistance; sensitivity; sensor;
Conference_Titel :
Southeastcon, 2013 Proceedings of IEEE
Conference_Location :
Jacksonville, FL
Print_ISBN :
978-1-4799-0052-7
DOI :
10.1109/SECON.2013.6567396
