Elastomer deformation is used as the basis for sensing many mechanical quantities such as force, pressure and acceleration. Elastomer shape, characterised by the so called 'shape-factor' is an important index in optimising the elastic properties of such structures. In this work we exploit the characteristic shapes of trenches that arise in anisotropically etched silicon to form micro-spring structures. The etched silicon structures are used as moulds to form elastomer microsprings with carefully controlled shape-factors designed to optimise spring mechanical performance parameters such as linearity and hysteresis. Preliminary stress-strain data for PDMS microsprings is presented.
展开▼
