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It is critical to investigate the charge carrier gradient generation in semiconductor junctions with an asymmetric configuration, which can open a new platform for developing lateral photovoltaic and self-powered devices. This paper reports the generation of a charge carrier gradient in a 3C-SiC/Si heterojunction with an asymmetric electrode configuration. 3C-SiC/Si heterojunction devices with different electrode widths were illuminated by laser beams (wavelengths of 405, 521, and 637 nm) and a halogen bulb. The charge carrier distribution along the heterojunction was investigated by measuring the lateral photovoltage generated when the laser spot scans across the 3C-SiC surface between the two electrodes. The highest lateral photovoltage generated is 130.58 mV, measured in the device with an electrode width ratio of 5 and under 637 nm wavelength and 1000 μW illumination. Interestingly, the lateral photovoltage was generated even under uniform illumination at zero bias, which is unusual for the lateral photovoltage, as it can only be generated when unevenly distributed photogenerated charge carriers exist. In addition, the working mechanism and uncovered behavior of the lateral photovoltaic effect are explained based on the generation and separation of electron-hole pairs under light illumination and charge carrier diffusion theory. The finding further elaborates the underlying physics of the lateral photovoltaic effect in nano-heterojunctions and explores its potential in developing optoelectronic sensors.

Giant piezoresistive effect enables the development of ultrasensitive sensing devices to address the increasing demands from hi-tech applications such as space exploration and self-driving cars. The discovery of the giant piezoresistive effect by optoelectronic coupling leads to a new strategy for enhancing the sensitivity of mechanical sensors, particularly with light from light-emitting diodes (LEDs). This paper reports on the piezoresistive effect in a 3C-SiC/Si heterostructure with a bonded LED that can reach a gauge factor (GF) as high as 18 000. This value represents an approximately 1000 times improvement compared to the configuration without a bonded LED. This GF is one of the highest GFs reported to date for the piezoresistive effect in semiconductors. The generation of carrier concentration gradient in the top thin 3C-SiC film under illumination from the LED coupling with the tuning current contributes to the modulation of the piezoresistive effect in a 3C-SiC/Si heterojunction. In addition, the feasibility of using different types of LEDs as the tools for modulating the piezoresistive effect is investigated by evaluating lateral photovoltage and photocurrent under LED's illumination. The generated lateral photovoltage and photocurrent are as high as 14 mV and 47.2 μA, respectively. Recent technologies for direct bonding of micro-LEDs on a Si-based device and the discovery reported here may have a significant impact on mechanical sensors.

A valveless microfluidic pump using a lead zirconate titanate (PZT) diaphragm actuated synthetic jet is developed and fabricated. For this present design, a valveless pump structure is developed in which the pump chamber is sealed on one side and connected to an emitting nozzle at another side. The design is simulated using the multiphysics approach and then successfully investigated with a prototype produced by a low-cost additive fabrication technique. The device's parameters, including the liquid pumping characteristics and the size of the PZT membrane, are optimized based on its desired performance. The developed device can be applied over a wide range of applications from micromixing to fluidic controlling.

Calcium phosphate (CaP) coating on melt electrowritten (MEW) substrates is a potential candidate for bone regeneration influencing the interaction of osteoblasts with implanted scaffolds. Pretreatment to improve hydrophilicity of the hydrophobic polymer fibres affects subsequent coating with bioactive compounds like CaP. Therefore, this study evaluated the subsequent stability and structural properties of CaP coated MEW Poly-ε-caprolactone (PCL) scaffolds following pre-treatment with either argon-oxygen plasma or sodium hydroxide (NaOH). Scanning electron microscopy and μ-CT showed uniform CaP coating after one hour immersion in simulated body fluid following plasma pretreatment. Moreover, fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, energy dispersive spectrometry and X-ray diffraction analysis confirmed the presence of hydroxyapatite, tetracalcium phosphate and halite structures on the coated scaffolds. Contact angle measurement showed that the plasma pretreatment and CaP coating improved the hydrophilicity of the scaffold. However, the mechanical properties of the scaffolds were degraded after both plasma and NaOH treatments. The tensile stability was significantly improved following mineralization in plasma-treated scaffolds due to the smaller crystal size formed on the surface resulting in a dense CaP layer. The results obtained by thermogravimetric analysis also confirmed higher deposition of CaP particles on coated scaffolds following plasma modification. The results of this study show that plasma pre-treated mineralized MEW PCL scaffolds are sufficiently stable to be useful for further development in bone regeneration applications. Keywords: Calcium phosphate coating, Polycaprolactone, Melt electrowriting, Apatite mineralization, Plasma treatment, Bone regeneration

In forests and membranes, Carbon nano tubes (CNT) are not individual, instead they tend to be agglomerated into bundles because of the strong van der Waals interaction. CNTs usually form into bundles containing up to hundreds or thousands of parallel CNTs named as fibres which create networks within a CNT membrane. Recently, CNT based macrostructures (yarn and membrane) have increasingly been used in various applications in electronics, medical and bioengineering. Meanwhile the volume density of CNTs impacts on mechanical and physical properties of macrostructures, the controlling of the density of membranes is very complex. Thus, in this paper, an electric processing to dilate CNT membrane is sufficiently studied and investigated by both the experiment and particle based numerical simulation. Several initially potential applications of the method are also represented not only to control the density of CNTs but also to improve the CNTs’ alignment in macro-structures.

The piezoresistive effect has been a dominant mechanical sensing principle that has been widely employed in a range of sensing applications. This transducing concept still receives great attention because of the huge demand for developing small, low-cost, and high-performance sensing devices. Many researchers have extensively explored new methods to enhance the piezoresistive effect and to make sensors more and more sensitive. Many interesting phenomena and mechanisms to enhance the sensitivity have been discovered. Numerous review papers on the piezoresistive effect have been published; however, there is no comprehensive review article that thoroughly analyses methods and approaches to enhance the piezoresistive effect. This paper comprehensively reviews and presents all the advanced enhancement methods ranging from the quantum physical effect and new materials to nanoscopic and macroscopic structures, and from conventional rigid to flexible, stretchable and wearable applications. In addition, the paper summarises results recently achieved on applying the above-mentioned innovative sensing enhancement techniques in making extremely sensitive piezoresistive transducers.

Electrohydrodynamic atomization has been emerging as a powerful approach for respiratory treatment, including the generation and delivery of micro/nanoparticles as carriers for drugs and antigens. In this work, we present a new conceptual design in which two nozzles facilitate dual electrospray coexisting with ionic wind at chamfered tips by a direct current power source. Experimental results by a prototype have demonstrated the capability of simultaneously generating-and-delivering a stream of charged reduced particles. The concept can be beneficial to pulmonary nano-medicine delivery since the mist of nanoparticles is migrated without any restriction of either the collector or the assistance of external flow, but is pretty simple in designing and manufacturing devices.

A new conceptual design of electrospray has been developed to generate neutralized micro-droplet using on-chip electro-hydrodynamic. A prototype of a bipolar electrostatic atomization with chambered nozzle tips has been carried out to demonstrate the capability of spaying viable, safe, neutral and alternative droplets which can be applied in micro/nano-encapsulation, bio-scaffold production and also the polymeric micro/nanoparticle fabrication over conventional fabrication techniques as well as the direct current electro-spraying/electrospinning. Several initially experimental results as presented through this work have shown the potential application of the present device in drug delivery.

A strain sensor with high flexibility using ionic liquid is proposed for sensing movements of human body. The resistance strain sensor is constructed from a silicon tube filled fully with a mixture of aqueous sodium chloride and glycerin sealed gold-coated electrodes. When an external force is applied to the sensor, the silicon tube deforms resulting in a change in the sensor resistance value. The proposed sensor was fabricated and experimentally characterized under several working conditions. Good performance was demonstrated in detecting the movement of human leg and fingers. The proposed simple sensor has high potential in wearable applications.

We report for the first time a lightweight, flexible and wearable hot-film flow sensor for real-time monitoring of human respiration. The sensor was manufactured by spinning and electrospinning methods from spinnable carbon nanotube (CNT) forest grown on silicon wafers and polyacrylonitrile (PAN). The sensor exhibited high sensitivity of 340 mV/(m/s), excellent flexibility, wearability and stability under bending and other mechanical disturbances. We successfully demonstrated a CNT wearable patch affixed to human upper lip for real-time monitoring of human respiration. The results indicate that our sensor can be employed to monitor sleep quality, personal health care and other clinical evaluations.

The paper reports the development of a particle precipitation based aerosol sampler using bipolar corona discharge ion winds with collected particles of minimized net charge. For the new approach, neutralized particles move towards a sampler under the effect of electric field and dual ion winds. Since there is no electrode or sampling chip installed inside the air-flow channel, impediments to airborne particle flow or ion winds are removed along the flow direction. In addition, the isolation of ion winds, which generate circuit, allows using various materials for the sampling chip including non-conductors and also protecting collected particles from any discharge ignition on the chip. The device mechanism is numerically simulated in OpenFOAM to study the electrofluidodynamic interaction of charged particles and bipolar ion winds. The efficiency of the new approach has been investigated by experiment with a maximum efficiency of 94%. The effects of flow rate, discharge voltage and electrode distances on the method are also evaluated.

We report a unique alternating current (AC) driven corona based air-flow generator using symmetrically arranged electrodes. Unlike the conventional configuration where one electrode generates charged ions moving towards the reference electrode, this configuration allows both negative and positive charges to simultaneously move away from the device and generate ion wind in parallel with the electrodes. In comparison with the direct current (DC) driven corona generator, the time oscillating AC field allows the device a better stabilization owing to the independence of ion wind strength from the inter-electrode spacing. Our results by both simulation and experiment showed that when the AC frequency exceeds a threshold value of 1100 Hz, the electric field at the electrode tips is determined dominantly by the charge cloud created in the previous half-cycle, resulting in stronger net electric field and thus stronger ion wind. In addition, the electrode separation in the AC driven corona based generator is less critical above the frequency threshold, yielding a more robust design with minimized susceptibility to manufacturing tolerances and impurities on the electrodes. Moreover, lower voltage levels of the AC driven system allow simpler and more economical design in the high voltage circuit of the AC generator.

This paper presents the design, fabrication, and characterization of a two-axis tilt angle sensor based on the air/liquid two-phase dielectric capacitive sensing structure. The sensor consists of f...

With its unprecedented properties over conventional rigid platforms, flexible electronics have been a significant research topic in the last decade, offering a broad range of applications from bendable display, flexible solar-energy systems, to soft implantable-devices for health monitoring. Flexible electronics for harsh and hazardous environments have also been extensively investigated. In particular, devices with stretchability and bend-ability as well as tolerance to extreme and toxic operating conditions are imperative. This work presents silicon carbide grown on silicon and then transferred onto polyimide substrate as a new platform for flexible sensors for hostile environments. Combining the excellent electrical properties of SiC and high temperature tolerance of polyimide, we demonstrated for the first time a flexible SiC sensors that can work above 400 °C. This new sensing platform opens exciting opportunities toward flexible sensing applications in hazardous environments.

In this paper, we report a further study of flow-network generating four jet flows which circulate in a sealed device to experimentally investigate the feasibility and efficiency of a dual-axis gyroscope. The experiment is carried out successfully and the experimental results reasonably agreed with those obtained by numerical analysis using OpenFOAM. The flow rectifying coefficient is determined using the mathematical lump model for a vibrating system, which takes into account of the device geometry and resonant frequency. Experimental and numerical results demonstrate that the coefficient of the new system developed in this study is significantly higher than those of conventional designs. The hotwire-integrated device which can function as a dual-axis gyroscope is tested using a turntable with speeds up to 1900 rpm. The scale factor and cross-sensitivity of the system are 0.26 μV s/° and 1.2%, respectively. The cross-sensitivity and the effects of linear acceleration, actuating voltage on the diaphragm, heating power and position of hotwires are also investigated.

We report an application of ion wind in angular rate sensing. A new design of a jet flow gyroscope using ion wind corona discharge is developed by conducting a numerical simulation and then an experimental analysis with regard to the advantages of a corona-discharge-based jet flow. Ion wind is generated by applying a high–voltage between a pin, as the discharge electrode, and a ring, as the reference electrode. The current–voltage characteristics of the discharge process by experimental works is set up as the boundary condition to describe the ion wind flow in the numerical simulation. A jet flow of ion wind is observed through an experiment and a simulation. When the gyroscope is subjected to an angular rate, the induced Coriolis force deflects the ion wind. This deflection is detected using four hotwires installed downstream of the working chamber behind the reference electrode. The experimental result show that the angular rate can be detected with a sensitivity of 4.7 μV/o/s. Because ion wind can be generated with minimum power and does not require any vibrating components, the device is robust, consumes low power, and is cost-effective.

This paper develops a millimeter scale fully packaged device in which a vortex flow of high velocity is generated inside a chamber. Under the actuation by a lead zirconate titanate (PZT) diaphragm, a flow circulates with increasing velocity after each actuating circle to form a vortex in a cavity named as the vortex chamber. At each cycle, the vibration of the PZT diaphragm creates a small net air flow through a rectifying nozzle, generates a synthetic jet which propagates by a gradual circulation toward the vortex chamber and then backward the feedback chamber. The design of such device is firstly conducted by a numerical analysis whose results are considered as the base of our experimental set-up. A vortex flow generated in the votex chamber was observed by a high-speed camera. The present approach which was illustrated by both the simulation and experiment is potential in various applications related to the inertial sensing, fluidic amplifier and micro/nano particle trapping and mixing.

We present the study of a simple and efficient air-flow generator under the effect of ion winds which are created by corona discharge. Based on our recent research of ion wind with bipolar corona using parallel pins, this work reports an investigation and evaluation of the corona system in asymmetrical configurations, where the two electrodes have different tip shapes. The system of new configuration is investigated both experimentally and numerically. The numerical and experimental results are the base to establish a regime of stable operation by the measured I-V characteristics. The optimized set-up can generate an air flow up to 2.24 m/s at the atmospheric pressure. With the asymmetrical configuration of different pin tip shapes, the system can be used in many mixing applications such as mixing solvent and die where the generated vortices are also presented.

In this paper, we report the details and findings of a study on tri-axis convective accelerometer, which is designed with the closed-loop type heat source and thermal sensing hotwire elements. The closed-loop heat source enhances the convective flow to the central part where a hotwire is placed to measure the vertical component of acceleration. The simulation was conducted using numerical analysis, and the device was prototyped by additive manufacturing. The device, functioning as a tilt sensor and an accelerometer, was tested up to acceleration of 20 g. The experiments were successfully conducted and the experimental results agreed reasonably with those obtained by numerical analysis. The results demonstrated that the closed-loop heat source could reduce the cross effect between the acceleration components. The scale factor and cross-sensitivity had the values of 0.26 μV/g and 1.2%, respectively. The cross-sensitivity and the effects of heating power were also investigated in this study.

The manipulation and detection of rare cells are important for many applications in early disease diagnosis and medicine. This study presents a dielectrophoresis (DEP) microfluidic enrichment platform combined with a built-in capacitive sensor for circulating tumor cell detection. The microchip is composed of a lollipop-shaped gold microelectrode structure under a polydimethylsiloxane chamber. A prototype of the device was fabricated using standard micromachining technology. With the proposed device, target cells (in this study, A549 non-small human lung carcinoma and S-180 sarcoma cell lines) are firstly guided toward the center of the working chamber via DEP forces. Then, the target cells are captured by an electrode immobilized by anti-EGFR, which has high affinity toward the target cells. After the cell concentration process, the differential capacitance is read to detect the presence of the target cells. Numerical simulations and measurement experiments were performed to demonstrate the high sensitivity of differential capacitive sensing. The obtained results show high sensitivity for S-180 cell detection (3 mV/cell). The proposed platform is suitable for rapid cancer diagnoses and other metabolic disease applications.

E-skin with physical sensing capability has attracted considerable interest towards practical applications in soft robotics, human–machine interfaces, and wearable health monitoring. However, the development of a multimodal sensing platform with multiple layers for e-skin sensing of temperature and pressure has faced challenges due to the typical use of bare or single sensing layers as well as the complication of integration of multifunctional sensing modules onto curved surfaces. Herein, we demonstrate a new platform technology with multiple sandwiched layers of highly oriented carbon nanotube (CNT) films and polyacrylonitrile (PAN) for integration of pressure and temperature sensory functionalities into a single platform that is thin, ultra-lightweight, flexible, and wearable. The key technology of in-situ deposition of sensor platform on objects or in robot interface makes this a unique method for the development of e-skins for robotic applications, offering a new approach to wearable electronics and portable health care.

The effect of the strength of the self-induced magnetic field around a current carrying wire on thermomagnetic convection cooling in ferrofluid is experimentally and numerically investigated. Temperature-rise characteristics of the hot micro-wire for uniform Joule heating with different electric currents are compared to identify the relative importance of the strength of the axisymmetric magnetic field. Experiments are done with copper and platinum wires with current inputs adjusted to achieve the same Joule heating per unit length of wire. It was found that at high current supply (2A), mixing in ferrofluid is escalated due to thermomagnetic convection that resulted into 28% increase in average Nusselt number value which finally resulted into temperature drop of 8 K in comparison to DIW. Comparison of results for different self-induced magnetic field strengths in ferrofluid and deionized water clearly show that the observed cooling phenomenon is due to the self-induced magnetic field interacting with the magnetic fluid rather than natural-convection or other nanofluid-related mechanisms. For 1.83 W J heating, the temperature of the copper wire is 6 K lower than that of the platinum wire. Temperature and velocity contours obtained from simulations based on a 2-D single-phase model including a temperature-dependent magnetic body force provide flow visualization and further confirmed that the thermomagnetic cooling is responsible for the observed behaviour.

This paper applies our recent approach to generate a circulatory jet flow within a confined space using ionic wind by the corona discharge. A millimetre-scaled prototype with bipolar discharge configuration, which consists of two pin electrodes, nozzle, working chamber, two circulating channels and three hotwires, was designed, manufactured and investigated. A dielectric barrier of 1.0 mm thickness, installed between the parallel electrodes of opposite polarity, is utilized in order to possibly minimize the inter-electrode distance, provide a smooth current-voltage discharge characteristic and prevent electrical spark. The experimental results demonstrate that the jet flow circulates inside the device with a average velocity of 0.7 m/s. The characteristics of flow by experiment are in reasonable agreement with the numerical analysis using the finite-volume method. The device specifications were investigated with several parameters including the discharge voltage on the electrode and the heating power on hotwires. In addition, the dependence of packaging conditions on the discharge process and the effect of alternating current on the generation of ion wind are also presented. The device has low power consumption of 33 mW, and great versatility for applications in fluidic inertial sensors, fluidic amplifiers or gas mixing.

In this paper, we improve and develop a micro cam system, in which reciprocating linear movement of two electrostatic linear comb-drive actuators (ELCA) is transformed into the unilateral rotation of a cam rim through six elastic wings of motion-transmission mechanisms. The system was fabricated by using SOI-MEMS technology and only one photo mask. Our experimental results show that the new micro cam system runs stably while the driving frequency ranging from 1 to 30 Hz with the driving voltage V pp = 100 V. In addition, the average angular velocities of the cam rim matched with the theoretical results better than the velocities measured in the previous micro cam system.

In this paper, we present an experimental study on the anemometry characteristics of a bipolar corona discharge probe with symmetrically arranged parallel electrodes. The possibility of measuring a wide range of air flow rate/flow velocity has been demonstrated. The parallel pin probe simultaneously creates positive and negative corona discharge, decomposes air media at both electrodes while keeping them with charge balance ensured by the use of a single isolated power source. This feature is fundamentally different from other reported unipolar discharge configurations, where the decomposed gas and charge is created from single electrode. Under the existence of the air flow, the decomposed gas is redistributed towards the downstream electrode, and changes the current–voltage characteristics of the system. When the probe is in open space, the discharge current is reduced with increasing flow velocity. In constrained space the discharge current behaviour is similar at high flow rates above 25 l min−1, while at low flow rates this relation is reversed. In addition, the sensitivity of discharge current to change in air flow is much higher when the negative pin is placed downstream. Both open space and constrained space characteristics are explained in terms of the influence of external flow on the ozone distribution and its effect on the discharge current. This explanation is supported by ozone measurements, with the data showing good correlation between the discharge current and ozone concentration with respect to the external flow. The role of the electrode separation and discharge voltage is also investigated.

We present a simple and efficient airflow generator utilizing the effect of ion wind by generating simultaneously both the positive and negative ions from two sharp electrodes mounted parallel to each other. The unique bipolar geometrical setup eliminates the effect of space charge by the high recombination rate of oppositely charged ions. The two-electrode arrangement is symmetrical, where the electrode creating charged ions of one polarity also serves as the reference electrode to establish the electric field required for ion creation by the opposite electrode, and vice versa. Unlike the conventional setup, with a single electrode generating ion wind with movement toward the reference electrode, in this configuration the air movement is parallel to the electrodes, and is directed away from the device. The airflow behavior is studied by both experiments and numerical simulation. The ion wind speed has a linear relationship with the square root of the discharge current, U ∝ √I, and its measured values agree well with simulation. The characterization of the discharge current-voltage relationship was derived from mathematical processing in the general form I = b(V - V o ) n . The ion wind speed and the current-voltage characteristics depend on the interspace between the electrodes and the electrode geometry. An ion wind speed on the order of ms -1 is created with a microampere discharge current, resulting in a total net charge of only several femtoampere. The proposed configuration is beneficial in minimizing the power consumption of the system, and in enabling air recirculation for airflow control applications, cooling applications, propulsion technology, and micropump design, especially for the applications where neutralized ion wind flow is required.

A novel air-flow generator based on the effect of ion wind has been developed by the simultaneous generation of both positive and negative ions using two electrodes of opposite polarity placed in parallel. Unlike the conventional unipolar-generators, this bipolar configuration creates an ion wind, which moves away from both electrodes and yields a very low net charge on the device. The electro-hydrodynamic behavior of air-flow has been experimentally and numerically studied. The velocity of ion wind reaches values up to 1.25 m/s using low discharge current 5 μA with the kinetic conversion efficiency of 0.65% and the released net charge of −30 fA, 8 orders of magnitude smaller compared with the discharge current. Due to easy scalability and low net charge, the present configuration is beneficial to applications with space constraints and/or where neutralized discharge process is required, such as inertial fluidic units, circulatory flow heat transfer, electrospun polymer nanofiber to overcome the intrinsically instability of the process, or the formation of low charged aerosol.

A fully packaged convective vortex gyrometer actuated by a PZT diaphragm is reported. The flow circulates at higher velocity after each actuating circle to form a vortex in the desired chamber. The vortex is characterized by hotwire anemometry. The device is initially designed based on a numerical analysis whose results are used to set up the experiment. The angular rate sensing of the device is successfully tested using a turntable. The technique is a potential solution to various applications related to inertial sensing and fluidic amplifier.

In this paper, a PZT synthetic jet that can function as both an efficient pumping and mixing device is developed. Compare with the conventional design where the practice of controlling the internal flow is undertaken by microvalves structure, this approach promotes the durability and allows the device to work with different liquids at high Reynold number without losing of backflow from the diffuser, therefore provides efficient mixing. The pumping performance is applicable for commercialized counterparts while the homogeneous medium was obtained at downstream in the experiments, which was further confirmed by simulation. Notably, the chaotic mixing feature of the device is also applicable for immiscible liquids with the micro-droplet formation result at the outlet.

The development of electronic skin (e-skin) and soft tactile sensing has recently attracted great interest. Here we report for the first time on a novel ionic liquid (IL) based soft pressure sensor with multi-point touch detection capability using 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium tetrafluoroborate ([BMIM]+[BF4]−) as a highly conductive sensing medium. The sensing mechanism is attributed to the repopulation of charge cations and anions in aqueous solution under pressure. The sensor can detect two dimensional touching positions with a sensitivity of −0.28% kPa−1. Our sensor showed good stability and temperature independence thanks to the incompressibility of IL in the range of touch pressure and the appropriate signal measurement configuration. We successfully demonstrated the sensor's capability to detect multi-point human touch with different pressure levels. Our simple design with smart structures and ease of fabrication processes enable the development of a soft and low-cost sensor with multiple-point sensing capabilities on a single chip.

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are of high interest for sensing applications, owing to their superior mechanical strength, high Young’s modulus and low density. In this work, we report on a facile approach for the fabrication of carbon nanotube devices using a four terminal configuration. Oriented carbon nanotube films were pulled out from a CNT forest wafer and then twisted into a yarn. Both the CNT film and yarn were arranged on elastomer membranes/diaphragms which were arranged on a laser cut acrylic frame to form pressure sensors. The sensors were calibrated using a precisely controlled pressure system, showing a large change of the output voltage of approximately 50 mV at a constant supply current of 100 µA and under a low applied pressure of 15 mbar. The results indicate the high potential of using CNT films and yarns for pressure sensing applications.

Design and implementation of sensing devices have been driven by the need for high sensitivity, low cost, and simple fabrication. Ionic liquids have some desirable properties for soft sensor design in terms of their volatility and conductivity. By applying low cost and simple fabrication methods, we present a multifunctional pressure and temperature sensor. Preliminary results show a sensitivity of 0.24 × 10−3 kPa−1 and −17,000 ppm/K for pressure and temperature respectively. Showing high promise for the presented ionic liquid in soft sensor design. Further investigation into the measuring method, structure, and working principle of the materials involved could provide a higher quality multimodal and multifunctional device.

In this paper, we present a study on a jet flow, assisted by low net charge ion wind from bipolar corona discharge setup. The ion wind is simultaneously generated from both positive and negative electrodes placed in parallel, adding momentum to the bulk flow directed alongside the electrodes and focused in the middle of interelectrode space. The electrodes are connected to a single battery-operated power source in a symmetrical arrangement, where the electrode creating charged ions of one polarity also serves as the reference electrode to establish the electric field required for ion creation by the opposite electrode, and vice versa. Multiphysics numerical simulation is carried out with programmable open source OpenFOAM, where the measured current-voltage is applied as a boundary condition to simulate the electrohydrodynamics flow. The jet flow inside the device is verified by hotwire anemometry using hotwires embedded within the device, with the measured values in good agreement with simulation. The corona discharge helped to focus the jet and increased the flow peak velocity from 1.41 m/s to 2.42 m/s with only 27.1 mW of consumed discharge power. The device is robust, ready-to-use and minimal in cost. In addition, as the oppositely charged corona flows are self-neutralized, the generated air flow remains neutral and therefore does not attach to a particular target, which expands the application range. These are important features, which can contribute to the development of multi-axis fluidic inertial sensors, fluidic amplifiers, micro blowers, gas mixing, coupling and analysis with space constraints and/or where neutralized discharge process is required, such as circulatory flow heat transfer or the formation of low charged aerosol for inhalation and charged particle deposition.

In this paper, we report on a miniaturized device that can generate ion wind flow with very low net charge. Both positive and negative ions are simultaneously generated from two sharp electrodes placed in parallel, connected to a single battery-operated power source. The two-electrode arrangement is symmetrical, where the electrode creating charged ions of one polarity also serves as the reference electrode to establish the electric field required for ion creation by the opposite electrode, and vice versa. The numerical simulation is carried out with programmable open source OpenFOAM, where the measured current-voltage is applied as boundary condition to simulate the electrohydrodynamics flow. The air flow inside the device is verified by eight hotwires embedded alongside the downstream channel. It was confirmed that the jet flow generated in the channel has a linear relationship with the square root of the discharge current and its measured values agree well with simulation. The device is robust, ready-to-use and minimal in cost. These are important features that can contribute to the development of multi-axis fluidic inertial sensors, fluidic amplifiers, gas mixing, coupling and analysis. The proposed configuration is beneficial with space constraints and/or where neutralized discharge process is required, such as inertial fluidic units, circulatory flow heat transfer, electrospun polymer nanofiber to overcome the intrinsic instability of the process, or the formation of low charged aerosol for inhalation and deposition of charge particles.

In this paper, we report on a miniaturized device that can generate multiple jet flows circulated in a confined system. The device has a flow network comprised of four symmetrical working chambers connected with a pump chamber. The pump chamber is actuated by a PZT diaphragm. The flows in the device are studied by a computational fluid dynamics simulation and experimental measurements. The numerical simulation is carried out with programmable open source OpenFOAM, where the vibration of the PZT diaphragm is modeled with a newly developed boundary condition. Flow inside the device is verified by two hotwires embedded in each working chamber. It was confirmed that the flows generated in the four sensing chambers were almost identical. The performance of the device can be customized either by fluidic parameters, such as the driving voltage on the diaphragm, or by heat transfer processes, such as heating current of the hotwire or by alternating the gas media. The device is robust, ready-to-use and minimal in size. These are important features that can contribute to the development of multi-axis fluidic inertial sensors, fluidic amplifiers, gas mixing, coupling and analysis.

We present a pressure sensing unit based on a unique corona discharge setup using symmetrical electrode arrangement with simultaneous positive and negative corona generation. The device generates stable corona discharge and enables reliable air pressure measurement in the range of 80–105 kPa, tested with five prototypes. The current–voltage characteristics of bipolar discharge system is analyzed in general form and three governing parameters, namely electrode geometry, electrode distance and discharge current, are studied in relation with absolute pressure. The sensors are driven with constant discharge current as low as 1 μA. The measured sensitivity is in good agreement with theoretical prediction and the sensor stability has been confirmed with 20-h continuous test without sensitivity deterioration. The sensitivity does not depend on the tested temperature range and its variation between devices is small, approximately ±3.0%. The advantage of the proposed system compared with similar corona-based constructions is its stable operation at low current with low power consumption and minimum electrode deterioration, which provides a cost effective and reliable solution.

Recent advances in assembling Carbon NanoTubes (CNTs) into macrostructures with outstanding properties, such as high tensile strength, high conductivity and porosity, and strong corrosive resistance, have underpinned potentially novel applications. For example, in advanced electronics, bioengineering and nanomechanics. This paper focuses on the development of (i) the piezoresistive polydimethylsiloxane–CNT (PDMS–CNT) composite membrane, and (ii) the thermo-resistive CNT hotwire using a technique of producing highly aligned CNT yarns and films. Our experimental results show that while PDMS–CNT films possess an outperformed gauge factor (10.7) compared with ones of CNT films in recent publications and several metals, a clear linear relationship of the resistance versus the temperature for a hotwire using CNT yarn is observed. Hence, the work supplies valuable evidence in the use of CNT films and yarns in several potential applications as thermal sensing elements and anemometric hotwires, respectively.

Synthetic jet pump is a potential technique to improve the pumping performance by introducing a smart structure which can enhance counter-rotating vortexes. Aligning with this approach, a new structure of valveless micro-pump is developed in this work. The mechanism of the present micro-pump is based on the combination of the nozzle and a tesla element to rectify the synthetic jet. The new structure of “ace of spades” nozzle, named Tesla coupled nozzle, creates series of vortexes at the orifice of the pump chamber that allows to attenuate the reversed flows while fluid is drawn through the pump. The present micro-pump is simple but robust and can perform at rather low voltages.

A novel configuration of gyroscope using an electro-hydrodynamics flow circulating in a confined space is developed. The configuration includes three corona discharge based actuators to generate ionic flows inside three separated sub-channels which are connected to the main chamber. Ionic flows are merged together while they move through a nozzle installed at the main chamber entrance. After the merging phase, the conflated flow is diverged to move back to sub-channels where each accelerates at the discharge actuator. A master ring is installed at the end of the nozzle to remove any residual charge of the conflated ion flow. The ion flow velocity is measured using several hotwires installed in the main chamber. Since the configuration does not require any vibrating components, the present device is robust, cost-effective and consumes low power, hence, very potential in application of inertial sensing.

Harvesting sustainable energy resources from surrounding environments to power small electronic devices and systems has attracted massive research attention. Herein, we develop a novel technology to harvest light energy to self-power and simultaneously sense mechanical acceleration in a monolithic structure. When the photonic gate is illuminated the operation mode of the device changes from conventional mode to light harvesting and self-powered operation. The light illumination provides a gradient of majority carrier concentration on the top semiconductor layer, generating a lateral photovoltage, which is the output voltage of the sensor. Under acceleration, the mechanical inertial force induces stress in the sensor material leading to the change of mobility of the charge carriers, which shifts their diffusion rate, and hence changes the gradient of the majority carriers and the lateral photovoltage. The sensitivity at 480 lx light illumination was measured to be 107 μ V / g , while it was approximately 30 μ V / g under the ambient light illumination without any electrical power source. In addition, the acceleration sensitivity is tunable by controlling parameters of the photonic gate such as light power, light spot position and light wavelength. The integration of sensing and powering functions into a monolithic platform proposed in this work eliminates the requirement of external power sources and offers potential solutions for wireless, independent, remote, and battery-free sensing devices and systems.

Stretchable and wearable sensor technology has attracted significant interests and created high technological impact on portable healthcare and smart human-machine interfaces. Wearable electromechanical systems are an important part of this technology that has recently witnessed tremendous progress toward high-performance devices for commercialization. Over the past few years, great attention has been paid to simultaneously enhance the sensitivity and stretchability of the electromechanical sensors toward high sensitivity, ultra-stretchability, low power consumption or self-power functionalities, miniaturisation as well as simplicity in design and fabrication. This work presents state-of-the-art advanced materials and rational designs of electromechanical sensors for wearable applications. Advances in various sensing concepts and structural designs for intrinsic stretchable conductive materials as well as advanced rational platforms are discussed. In addition, the practical applications and challenges in the development of stretchable electromechanical sensors are briefly mentioned and highlighted.

Silicon carbide (SiC)‐based microsystems are promising alternatives for silicon‐based counterparts in a wide range of applications aiming at conditions of high temperature, high corrosion, and extreme vibration/shock. However, its high resistance to chemical substances makes the fabrication of SiC particularly challenging and less cost‐effective. To date, most SiC micromachining processes require time‐consuming and high‐cost SiC dry‐etching steps followed by metal wet etching, which slows down the prototyping and characterization process of SiC devices. This work presents a lithography and etching‐free microfabrication for 3C‐SiC on insulator‐based microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) devices. In particular, a direct laser ablation technique to replace the conventional lithography and etching processes to form functional SiC devices from 3C‐SiC‐on‐glass wafers is used. Utilizing a single line‐cutting mode, both metal contact shapes and SiC microstructures can be patterned simultaneously with a remarkably fast speed of over 20 cm s−1. As a proof of concept, several SiC microdevices, including temperature sensors, strain sensors, and microheaters, are demonstrated, showing the potential of the proposed technique for rapid and reliable prototyping of SiC‐based MEMS.

In this Letter, we present an electrohydrodynamic atomization (EHDA) technology that generates and delivers charge reduced nanoparticles to open space without a collector electrode. The backward ring-nozzle ac EHDA system driven at sub-kHz frequencies generates alternatively charged particles, which exert electric force and recombine in the vicinity of the spraying electrode. This unique configuration creates a stable jet stream of charge reduced nanoparticles, contrary to classical dc EHDA systems. Experiments indicate that nanoparticles are emitted through a wide range of voltages and frequencies, matching up to the hydrodynamic time of the cone jet model. These unique advantages of the new system would empower the nanoparticle EHDA devices for aerosol drug delivery in bio and health care applications.

A flexible pressure sensor with a rudimentary, ultra-low cost, and solvent-free fabrication process is presented in this paper. The sensor has a graphite-on-paper stacked paper structure, which deforms and restores its shape when pressure is applied and released, showing an exceptionally fast response and relaxation time of &asymp, 0.4 ms with a sensitivity of &minus, 5%/Pa. Repeatability of the sensor over 1000 cycles indicates an excellent long-term stability. The sensor demonstrated fast and reliable human touch interface, and successfully integrated into a robot gripper to detect grasping forces, showing high promise for use in robotics, human interface, and touch devices.

A piezoelectrically actuated valveless micropump has been designed and developed. The principle components of this system are piezoelectrically actuated (PZT) metal diaphragms and a complete fluid flow system. The design of this pump mainly focuses on a cross junction, which is generated by a nozzle jet attached to a pump chamber and the intersection of two inlet channels and an outlet channel respectively. During each PZT diaphragm vibration cycle, the junction connecting the inlet and outlet channels with the nozzle jet permits consistencies in fluidic momentum and resistances in order to facilitate complete fluidic path throughout the system, in the absence of any physical valves. The entire micropump structure is fabricated as a plate-by-plate element of polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) sheets and sandwiched to get required fluidic network as well as the overall device. In order to identify the flow characteristics, and to validate the test results with numerical simulation data, FEM analysis using ANSYS was carried out and an eigenfrequency analysis was performed to the PZT diaphragm using COMSOL Multiphysics. In addition, the control system of the pump was designed and developed to change the applied frequency to the piezoelectric diaphragms. The experimental data revealed that the maximum flow rate is 31.15 mL/min at a frequency of 100 Hz. Our proposed design is not only for a specific application but also useful in a wide range of biomedical applications.

This paper reports for the first time a millimeter scale fully packaged device which generates a vortex flow of high velocity. The flow which is simply actuated by a PZT diaphragm circulates with a higher velocity after each actuating circle to form a vortex in a desired chamber. The design of such device is firstly conducted by a numerical analysis using OpenFOAM. Several numerical results are considered as the base of our experiment where a flow vortex is observed by a high speed camera. The present device is potential in various applications related to the inertial sensing, fluidic amplifier and micro/nano particle trapping and mixing.

In this paper, we report on the design, simulation, and experimental analysis of a miniaturized device that can generate multiple circulated jet flows. The device is actuated by a lead zirconate titanate (PZT) diaphragm. The flows in the device were studied using three-dimensional transient numerical simulation with the programmable open source OpenFOAM and was comparable to the experimental result. Each flow is verified by two hotwires mounted at two positions inside each consisting chamber. The experiment confirmed that the flow was successfully created, and it demonstrated good agreement with the simulation. In addition, a prospective application of the device as an angular rate sensor is also demonstrated. The device is robust, is minimal in size, and can contribute to the development of multi-axis fluidic inertial sensors, fluidic amplifiers, gas mixing, coupling, and analysis.

This paper presents a novel anemometry based on bipolar corona discharge probe with symmetrically arranged parallel electrodes, which is potentially applicable for in-situ measurement. With the proposed configuration, under the existence of the airflow, the decomposed gas is redistributed towards the downstream electrode, and changes the current-voltage characteristics of the system. Experimental study on the anemometry characteristics demonstrates the possibility of measuring a wide range of air flow rate/ flow velocity, i.e., up to 80 l/m.

This paper reports a novel device for generating circulatory jet flow using bipolar discharge configuration. This arrangement, in which two electrodes serve as mutual emitters and reference defining the electric field, allows to generate simultaneously ionic wind with opposite charge, thus the ion flow is self-neutralized while keeping the momentum in desired direction. In order to prevent system from sparking over, between the two parallel electrodes is installed one millimetre thick polypropylene wall. Experiment and simulation has shown that the air flow is successfully circulated in the confined device with peak velocity of 2 m/s while consuming only 33 mW.

This paper presents a dielectrophoresis (DEP) enrichment microfluidic platform with built-in antibody-based capacitive sensor for tumor rare cells detection. We take the advantages of the effective DEP actuation, the high selectivity property of antibody for rare cell immobilization, and the high sensitivity of differential capacitive sensing for quantitatively reading out, to produce advanced platform, toward single tumor cell detection for the rapid laboratory tests of cancers diagnoses and other metabolic diseases applications.