Large-scale assembly of highly sensitive Si-based flexible strain sensors for human motion monitoring.

Silicon is the dominant semiconductor in modern society, but the rigid nature of most Si structures hinders its applications in flexible electronics. In this work, Si-based flexible strain sensors are fabricated with Si fabric consisting of long Si nanowires. The as-obtained sensors demonstrate a large strain range of 50% and a gauge factor of up to 350, which are sufficient to detect human motions with superior performance over traditional sensors. The results reveal that the assembling strategy may potentially be applied to large-scale fabrication of highly sensitive, flexible strain sensors for emerging applications such as healthcare and sports monitoring. Moreover, the Si fabric would also enable broad applications of Si materials in other flexible and wearable devices such as flexible optoelectronics and displays.

[1]  Benjamin C. K. Tee,et al.  An electrically and mechanically self-healing composite with pressure- and flexion-sensitive properties for electronic skin applications. , 2012, Nature nanotechnology.

[2]  Pooi See Lee,et al.  Highly Stretchable Piezoresistive Graphene–Nanocellulose Nanopaper for Strain Sensors , 2014, Advanced materials.

[3]  I. Park,et al.  A stretchable strain sensor based on a metal nanoparticle thin film for human motion detection. , 2014, Nanoscale.

[4]  Keith J Stevenson,et al.  Silicon nanowire fabric as a lithium ion battery electrode material. , 2011, Journal of the American Chemical Society.

[5]  J. Greenwood.  Silicon in mechanical sensors , 1988 .

[6]  Damon A. Smith,et al.  Flexible germanium nanowires: ideal strength, room temperature plasticity, and bendable semiconductor fabric. , 2010, ACS nano.

[7]  K. Hata,et al.  A stretchable carbon nanotube strain sensor for human-motion detection. , 2011, Nature nanotechnology.

[8]  Haonan Si,et al.  Flexible and Highly Sensitive Strain Sensors Fabricated by Pencil Drawn for Wearable Monitor , 2015 .

[9]  Shui-Tong Lee,et al.  A surface curvature oscillation model for vapour–liquid–solid growth of periodic one-dimensional nanostructures , 2015, Nature Communications.

[10]  R. Ruoff,et al.  Stretchable and highly sensitive graphene-on-polymer strain sensors , 2012, Scientific Reports.

[11]  Seung Hwan Ko,et al.  Highly Sensitive and Stretchable Multidimensional Strain Sensor with Prestrained Anisotropic Metal Nanowire Percolation Networks. , 2015, Nano letters.

[12]  Tingting Yang,et al.  Wearable and Highly Sensitive Graphene Strain Sensors for Human Motion Monitoring , 2014 .

[13]  J. Milne,et al.  Giant piezoresistance effects in silicon nanowires and microwires. , 2010, Physical review letters.

[14]  Charles S. Smith.  Piezoresistance Effect in Germanium and Silicon , 1954 .

[15]  Babak Ziaie,et al.  Highly stretchable and sensitive unidirectional strain sensor via laser carbonization. , 2015, ACS applied materials & interfaces.

[16]  I. Park,et al.  Highly stretchable and sensitive strain sensor based on silver nanowire-elastomer nanocomposite. , 2014, ACS nano.

[17]  Luqi Liu,et al.  A hierarchically structured graphene foam and its potential as a large-scale strain-gauge sensor. , 2013, Nanoscale.

[18]  N. Lee,et al.  Stretchable, Transparent, Ultrasensitive, and Patchable Strain Sensor for Human-Machine Interfaces Comprising a Nanohybrid of Carbon Nanotubes and Conductive Elastomers. , 2015, ACS nano.

[19]  Charles M. Lieber,et al.  Single nanowire photovoltaics. , 2009, Chemical Society reviews.

[20]  Woo Jin Hyun,et al.  Highly stretchable and wearable graphene strain sensors with controllable sensitivity for human motion monitoring. , 2015, ACS applied materials & interfaces.

[21]  Markus Mohr,et al.  Carbon fiber-ZnO nanowire hybrid structures for flexible and adaptable strain sensors. , 2013, Nanoscale.

[22]  Susumu Sugiyama,et al.  Piezoresistance measurement on single crystal silicon nanowires , 2003 .

[23]  T. Ren,et al.  Scalable fabrication of high-performance and flexible graphene strain sensors. , 2014, Nanoscale.

[24]  Beth L. Pruitt,et al.  Review: Semiconductor Piezoresistance for Microsystems , 2009, Proceedings of the IEEE.

[25]  Edward Sazonov,et al.  Strain Sensors in Wearable Devices , 2015 .

[26]  Michael J Cima,et al.  Next-generation wearable electronics , 2014, Nature Biotechnology.

[27]  Dae-Hyeong Kim,et al.  Multifunctional wearable devices for diagnosis and therapy of movement disorders. , 2014, Nature nanotechnology.

[28]  J. Rogers,et al.  Piezoresistive Strain Sensors and Multiplexed Arrays Using Assemblies of Single-Crystalline Silicon Nanoribbons on Plastic Substrates , 2011, IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices.

[29]  Gengfeng Zheng,et al.  Nanowire-Based Nanoelectronic Devices in the Life Sciences , 2007 .

[30]  İlker Bekir Topçu,et al.  Properties of concrete containing waste glass , 2004 .

[31]  Nae-Eung Lee,et al.  A Flexible Reduced Graphene Oxide Field‐Effect Transistor for Ultrasensitive Strain Sensing , 2014 .

[32]  U. Gösele,et al.  Growth, thermodynamics, and electrical properties of silicon nanowires. , 2010, Chemical reviews.

[33]  Robert Bogue,et al.  MEMS sensors: past, present and future , 2007 .

[34]  Jeong Sook Ha,et al.  Highly Stretchable and Sensitive Strain Sensors Using Fragmentized Graphene Foam , 2015 .

[35]  K. Balasubramaniam,et al.  One-pot synthesis of conducting graphene-polymer composites and their strain sensing application. , 2012, Nanoscale.