Abstract
Bio-inspiration from natural structures and systems can be used to design innovative engineered solutions. Here natural sensor architectures inspire the design of micro-electronic-mechanical systems (MEMS) for flow sensing. In this chapter, we introduce an innovative approach to artificial flow sensing based on mimicking stereocilia and their mechanical properties. This method exploits the intrinsic differences in material properties of multilayered thin films such as thermal expansion properties, crystalline lattice order and interatomic distances. If a cantilever beam is multilayered, these properties create a stress gradient along the cantilever cross section, allowing an upwards bending, defined as ‘stress-driven geometry’. When inserted in a superficial fluid stream, the cantilever beam is deformed by the flow and acts as a fluid flow velocity sensor. It is shown that a Parylene post-processing conformal coating not only waterproofs the device, but also sets the flexural stiffness of the beam, thus tuning the dynamic range for flow measurements optimisation.
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Acknowledgements
This work was carried out under the robotic FIsh LOcomotion and SEnsing (FILOSE) project, supported by the European Union, seventh framework programme (FP7-ICT-2007-3).
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Rizzi, F., Qualtieri, A., Chambers, L.D., Epifani, G., Megill, W.M., De Vittorio, M. (2014). Stress-Driven Artificial Hair Cell for Flow Sensing. In: Bleckmann, H., Mogdans, J., Coombs, S. (eds) Flow Sensing in Air and Water. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-41446-6_19
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-41446-6_19
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