Lithography guided horizontal growth of silicon nanowires for the fabrication of ultrasensitive piezoresistive strain gauges

We present a fabrication process to obtain ultrasensitive piezoresistive strain gauges that exploit the exceptional mechanical and piezoresistive properties of silicon nanowires grown via the vapour-liquid-solid mechanism. The process allows the implementation of nanowire-based strain gauges in micr...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Fernández-Regúlez, Marta, Plaza, Jose A., Lora-Tamayo, Emilio, Paulo, Alvaro San
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión aceptada para publicación
Fecha de publicación:2010
País:España
Institución:Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC)
Repositorio:DIGITAL.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSIC
OAI Identifier:oai:digital.csic.es:10261/378323
Acceso en línea:http://hdl.handle.net/10261/378323
https://api.elsevier.com/content/abstract/scopus_id/76949096154
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:MEMS | Nanomechanical cantilever sensors | NEMS | Silicon nanowires
http://metadata.un.org/sdg/3
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Descripción
Sumario:We present a fabrication process to obtain ultrasensitive piezoresistive strain gauges that exploit the exceptional mechanical and piezoresistive properties of silicon nanowires grown via the vapour-liquid-solid mechanism. The process allows the implementation of nanowire-based strain gauges in micro and nanoelectromechanical systems, which is demonstrated here for piezoresistive cantilever sensors. The main feature of this process is that it allows the location of a nanowire array only at one side of the neutral axis of the mechanically active area of the device. This is a crucial requirement to achieve that only tensile or compressive stresses occur in the array, so that a detectable change in resistance is produced. Atomic force microscopy characterization of the sensitivity of the obtained devices validates the fabrication process. © 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.