Electrohydrodynamic jet printed bioinspired piezoelectric hair-like sensor for high-sensitivity air-flow detection

Abstract

Inspired by the highly sensitive hairs of creatures in nature, this work proposes a high-aspect-ratio piezoelectric sensor that is processed using electrohydrodynamic jet printing technology. A thin layer of piezoelectric material is directly written on the surface of tungsten steel microwire by electrohydrodynamic jet printing. The piezoelectric thin-film was crystallized by high-temperature annealing and be bonded fully to the microwire. The annealed piezoelectric thin-film was then sputtered with copper electrodes which forms a piezoelectric hair-like sensor with a diameter of 120 μm and an aspect ratio of 300. It was observed that the piezoelectric hair-like sensor generates 18 mV with a displacement bend of 100 μm. The output signal increases linearly with the increase of lateral displacement and velocity. It was examined that the piezoelectric hair-like sensor can detect airflow velocity as low as 0.01 m/s, which shows a lower detection threshold compared to piezoelectric hair-like airflow sensors processed in other ways. In addition, the detection of an airflow velocity of 10 m/s and a response time is 70 ms is obtained using the piezoelectric hair-like sensor, which exhibits large detection range and fast response. The experimental results show that the piezoelectric hair-like sensor has high sensitivity, large detection range and rapid detection response, which is expected to be a high-performance sensor for biosensing and airflow monitoring.

Potential Applications of Whisker Sensors in Marine Science and Engineering: A Review

“…The physical representation of the sensor is shown in Figure 6F. Due to their uncomplicated structure and self-driving attributes, piezoelectric whisker sensors can be fabricated on a microscale [103], as illustrated in Figure 6G. This sensor is produced using electrohydrodynamic jet printing technology, with a whisker sensor diameter of only 120 µm and a well-defined linear output pattern.…”