PVDF-TrFE-Based Stretchable Contact and Non-Contact Temperature Sensor for E-Skin Application

Development of stretchable electronics has been driven by key applications such as electronics skin for robotic or prosthetic. Mimicking skin functionalities imposes at a minimal level: stretchability, pressure, and temperature sensing capabilities. While the research on pressure sensors for artificial skin is extensive, stretchable temperature sensors remain less explored. In this work, a stretchable temperature and infrared sensor has been developed on a polydimethylsiloxane substrate. The sensor is based on poly(vinylidene fluoride-trifluoroethylene) (PVDF-TrFE) as a pyroelectric material. This material is sandwiched between two electrodes. The first one consists of aluminium serpentines, covered by gold in order to get electrical contact and maximum stretchability. The second one is based on poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):poly(styrenesulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS) that has shown good electrical compatibility with PVDF-TrFE and provides the stretchability of the top electrode. Without poling the PVDF-TrFE, sensor has shown a sensitivity of around 7 pF.°C−1 up to 35% strain without any change in its behaviour. Then, taking advantage on infrared absorption of PEDOT:PSS, a poled device has shown a pyroelectric peak of 13 mV to an infrared illumination of 5 mW at 830 nm. This stretchable device valuably allows an electronic skin (e-skin) use for contact and more importantly non-contact thermal sensing.

A CMOS Compatible Pyroelectric Mid-Infrared Detector Based on Aluminium Nitride

The detection of infrared radiation is of great interest for a wide range of applications, such as absorption sensing in the infrared spectral range. In this work, we present a CMOS compatible pyroelectric detector which was devised as a mid-infrared detector, comprising aluminium nitride (AlN) as the pyroelectric material and fabricated using semiconductor mass fabrication processes. To ensure thermal decoupling of the detector, the detectors are realized on a Si3N4/SiO2 membrane. The detectors have been tested at a wavelength close to the CO2 absorption region in the mid-infrared. Devices with various detector and membrane sizes were fabricated and the influence of these dimensions on the performance was investigated. The noise equivalent power of the first demonstrator devices connected to a readout circuit was measured to be as low as 5.3 × 10 − 9 W / Hz .

Designing soft pyroelectric and electrocaloric materials using electrets

A temperature variation can electrically polarize a pyroelectric material.

Al1-x ScxN Thin Film Structures for Pyroelectric Sensing Applications

ABSTRACTAlN thin film structures have many useful and practical piezoelectric and pyroelectric properties. The potential enhancement of the AlN piezo- and pyroelectric constants allows it to compete with more commonly used materials. For example, combination of AlN with ScN leads to new structural, electronic, and mechanical characteristics, which have been reported to substantially enhance the piezoelectric coefficients in solid-solution AlN-ScN compounds, compared to a pure AlN-phase material.In our work, we demonstrate that an analogous alloying approach results in considerable enhancement of the pyroelectric properties of AlN - ScN composites. Thin films of ScN, AlN and Al1-x ScxN (x = 0 – 1.0) were deposited on silicon (004) substrates using dual reactive sputtering in Ar/N2 atmosphere from Sc and Al targets. The deposited films were studied and compared using x-ray diffraction, XPS, SEM, and pyroelectric characterization. An up to 25% enhancement was observed in the pyroelectric coefficient (Pc = 0.9 µC /m2K) for Sc1-xAlxN thin films structures in comparison to pure AlN thin films (Pc = 0.71 µC/m2K). The obtained results suggest that Al1-x ScxN films could be a promising novel pyroelectric material and might be suitable for use in uncooled IR detectors.

Measurement System of Pyroelectric Coefficient for Pyroelectric Material Using Dynamic Current Method

A dynamic current method used to measure pyroelectric coefficient (p) for pyroelectric material is described in detail in this paper. The hardware part of the system includes pre-converting circuit, post amplifier circuit, wave-filter circuit, analog-to-digital conversion circuit, temperature test circuit and LCD display panel circuit. The maximum magnification time of amplifier circuit of system is 11300 and the band-stop frequency center for wave-filter circuit is 50 Hz and it's second harmonics 100 Hz. Finally, the measurement system is used to test p parameter of LiTaO3crystal slice. The lowest p parameter of LiTaO3crystal with a value of 6.08×10-9C/cm2 oC is achieved at 32.5°C.