Flexible, Strain Gated Logic Transducer Arrays Enabled by Initializing Surface Instability on Elastic Bilayers

Cong Wang, Ben Xu, Jonathan Terry, Stewart Smith, Anthony Walton, Steven Wang, Haibao Lu, Yifan Li

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract / Description of output

Developing flexible sensors with a high strain sensing range could enable widespread downstream applications, by allowing intimate, mechanically conformable integration with soft biological tissues. By characterizing interconnected metal electrode arrays on super-flexible substrates, we have established a surface deformation control strategy of an array of strain transducers. The strain gated switches are capable of measuring various compressive strains (up to 60%) by bringing metal electrodes into self-contact via creasing elastic instability beyond a threshold substrate strain. The designed devices have been developed to explore the geometry design effect on the electrode-elastomer “stiff film on soft elastomer” surface deformation. The enabled transducer array yielded a stepwise strain-electrical resistance switching mechanism which opens up the potential of future interconnected sensor array type of super-compressible devices.
Original languageEnglish
JournalAPL Materials
Volume7
Issue number3
Early online date28 Mar 2019
DOIs
Publication statusE-pub ahead of print - 28 Mar 2019

Keywords / Materials (for Non-textual outputs)

  • deformation
  • electronic circuits
  • transducers
  • electrical switches

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