Study on fabrication of force transducer based on carbon nano-flake balls.
Richard AdiputraYi-Hung ChenShang-Ru WuGabriel VankoRobert AndokHung-Yin TsaiPublished in: Nanotechnology (2023)
The purpose of this study is to fabricate a force sensor. A novel three-dimensional carbon-based material called carbon nano-flake ball (CNFB) was used as it exhibits a large surface-area and high electrical conductivity. Moreover, CNFB can be easily fabricated by using a one-step fabrication process via microwave plasma chemical vapor deposition (MPCVD).
In present study, two different methods, chemical and mechanical exfoliation, were used to fabricate CNFB thin films. CNFB has been successfully grown on silicon and Si/SiO2/Al2O3 substrate, respectively. The experiments showed that using sol-gel catalyst coating as pretreatment precursor, results in a larger ball-size but lower deposition density of CNFB on Al2O3 substrate. By using mechanical exfoliation by polyimide (PI) tape, the CNFB grown on silicon substrate can be easily exfoliated from the substrate.
PI/CNFB was successfully exfoliated from the substrate with a silver-grey color at the bottom of the CNFB which is likely to be silicon carbide (SiC) from the EDS analysis. The sheet resistance of PI/CNFB was 18.25 ± 0.98 Ω/sq. PI/CNFB exhibits a good force sensing performance with good stability after 10 times of loading-unloading cycles and a good sensitivity of 11.60 Ω/g.
.