Characterization of Piezoresistive Sensors of Graphite on Paper Substrate

Abstract

This article describes the development of piezoresistive sensor elements using exfoliating graphite deposited by direct technique on paper polymeric substrate. The micro fabrication processes using silicon is very time consuming and expensive involving sophisticated equipment and clean rooms. We are interested in developing a new technology for the production of MEMS with minimal cost but using the typical criteria of the integrated circuit micro fabrication processes. We have chosen the paper substrate as a basic material to explore the physical effects of graphite as sensor element. As our first research paper we use to build a force sensor device based on the theory of small deflections. This article shows the feasibility of producing low-cost piezoresistive sensing elements using an allotropic form of carbon.