Integrated SWCNT sensors in micro-wind tunnel for air-flow shear-stress measurement

We have developed SWCNT sensors for airflow shear-stress measurement inside a polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) "micro-wind tunnel" chip. An array of sensors is fabricated by using dielectrophoretic (DEP) technique to manipulate bundled single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) across the gold microelectrodes on a PMMA substrate. The sensors are then integrated in a PMMA micro-wind tunnel, which is fabricated by SU-8 molding/hot-embossing technique. Since the sensors detect air flow by thermal transfer principle, we have first examined the I-V characteristics of the sensors and confirmed that self-heating effect occurs when the input voltage is above ∼1 V. We then performed the flow sensing experiment on the sensors using constant temperature (CT) configuration with input power of ∼230 μW. The voltage output of the sensors increases with the increasing flow rate in the micro-wind tunnel and the detectable volumetric flow is in the order of 1 × 10^-5m³/s. We also found that the activation power of the sensors has a linear relation with 1/3 exponential power of the shear stress which is similar to conventional hot-wire and polysilicon types of convection-based shear-stress sensors. Moreover, measurements of sensors with different overheat ratios were compared, and results showed that sensor is more sensitive to the flow with a higher overheat ratio. © Springer-Verlag 2009.