Flexible surface acoustic wave broadband strain sensors based on ultra-thin flexible glass substrate
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Flexible surface acoustic wave broadband strain sensors based on ultra-thin flexible glass substrate Jinkai Chen1, Wenbo Wang1, Weipeng Xuan1, Xiaozhi Wang1*, Shurong Dong1, Sean Garner2, Pat Cimo2 and Jikui Luo3,1* 1
Coll. of Info. Sci. & Electron. Eng., Zhejiang University, 38 Zheda Road, Hangzhou 310027, China.
2
Corning Incorporated, One River Front Plaza, Corning, NY 14831, USA
3
Inst. of Renew. Energy & Environ. Technol., Bolton University, Deane Road, Bolton BL3 5AB, UK
Corresponding authors email: [email protected], [email protected]
ABSTRACT: Flexible SAW devices based on ZnO piezoelectric thin film deposited on ultra-thin flexible glass were fabricated and their performances as a strain sensor have been investigated. The XRD and AFM characterizations showed that the ZnO layers have good crystal quality and smooth surface. The flexible SAW devices show excellent strain sensitivity which increases from ~87 to ~137 Hz/με with the increasing ZnO thickness, and the sensors can withstand strains up to ~3000 με, 4~6 times larger than those of SAW strain sensors on rigid substrates. The sensors exhibited remarkable stability up to hundreds of times bending under large strains. The effects of environmental variables (temperature, humidity, UV light) on the sensor performance have been investigated. The temperature has a significant effect on the performance of the SAW strain sensor, while humidity and light have limited effect. INTRODUCTION Flexible electronics is an emerging technology with rapid progress and wide penetration into various technologies and application areas. Various flexible electronic devices and microsystems have been developed and their applications have been explored [1-3]. The most common substrates so far being explored for flexible electronics are polymers such as PET, PI and PMMA etc. They can endure extremely large strains owing to the nature of their flexibility, but suffer from many shortages such as poor mechanical strength, poor wear resistance, low thermal stability and low processing and operating temperatures etc. The recently developed ultrathin Willow Glass has the combined merits of good flexibility, high transparency, excellent corrosion and wear resistance, mechanical reliability and thermal stability, and thus has raised great interests for the fabrication of flexible electronic devices[4-7]. Surface acoustic wave (SAW) devices are essential devices for communication and sensors, and recently we have successfully demonstrated flexible SAW devices on various polymer substrates with good performance, and demonstrated the excellent performance and applications of these SAW for sensors and microfluidics [8-10]. The paper reports a new type of flexible SAW devices that are made on the ultrathin glass substrate, and shows that the SAW devices have excellent performance as a strain sensor with ultra-broad strain ranges and remarkable stability and reliability.
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