A POLYMER-BASED MICROFLUIDIC RESISTIVE SENSOR FOR DETECTING DISTRIBUTED LOADS

摘要

This paper reports on a polymer-based microfluidic resistive sensor for detecting distributed loads. The sensor is comprised of a polymer rectangular microstructure with an embedded electrolyte-filled microchannel and an array of electrodes aligned along the microchannel length. Electrolyte solution in the microchannel serves as impedance transduction. Distributed loads acting on the polymer microstructure give rise to different deflection along the microstructure length which is recorded as the resistance change in electrolyte solution. This sensor can detect distributed loads by monitoring the resistance change at each pair of electrodes. A sensor with an in-plane dimension of ～20mm× 10mm and five pairs of electrodes is fabricated using a CNC machine. 1M KCl solution is used as the electrolyte. Using a custom built electronic circuit on breadboard and a custom Lab VIEW program the static and dynamic performance of the sensor is characterized demonstrating the feasibility of employing this sensor to detect distributed loads.