A novel flow sensor based on resonant sensing with two-stage microleverage mechanism

Design and Development of a Hair-like Sensor with Bridge-Type Flexible Amplification Mechanisms

Compared with lever-type amplification mechanisms, bridge-type flexible amplification mechanisms have advantages in terms of amplification ratio and structural compactness. Therefore, they can effectively replace the lever-type amplification mechanism in the existing hair-like sensors and realize the development of miniature hair-like sensors with high sensitivity. With that in mind, a highly sensitive hair-like sensor based on a bridge-type amplification mechanism with distributed flexibility is presented to measure the airflow rate. First, the structural composition and operating principle of the hair-like sensor are described. Then, detailed design and analysis of the hair-like sensor are carried out, focusing on the design of the hair post structure, amplification mechanism, and resonator. Furthermore, the designed hair-like sensor is processed and prepared, and some experimental studies are conducted. The experimental results demonstrate that the developed hair-like sensor can measure the airflow rate with high sensitivity up to 8.56 Hz/(m/s)2. This provides a new concept for the structural design of hair-like sensors and expands the application of bridge-type flexible amplification mechanisms in the field of micro/nano sensors.

Elastic Organic Crystals as Bioinspired Hair-Like Sensors

One of the typical haptic elements are natural hairy structures that animals and plants rely on for feedback. Although these hair sensors are an admirable inspiration, the development of active flow sensing components having low elastic moduli and high aspect ratios remains a challenge. Here, we report a new sensing approach based on a flexible, thin and optically transmissive organic crystal of high aspect ratio, which is stamped with fluorescent dye for tracking. When subjected to gas flow and exposed to laser, the crystal bends due to exerted pressure and acts as an optical flow (hair) sensor with low detection limit (≈1.578 m s^-1 ) and fast response time (≈2.70 s). The air-flow-induced crystal deformation and flow dynamics response are modelled by finite element analysis. Due to having a simple design and being lightweight and mechanically robust this prototypical crystal hair-like sensor opens prospects for a new class of sensing devices ranging from wearable electronics to aeronautics.

Research on micro-leverage in monolithic quartz resonant accelerometer

In this study, the application of micro-leverage in the monolithically all-quartz resonant accelerometer is proposed. The magnification of the micro-leverage structure used for a large size double-ended tuning fork (DETF) was analyzed. The effect of DETF's dimension both on its own force-frequency sensitivity and micro-leverage's magnification was investigated. Through the study of the relationship between DETF's force-frequency sensitivity and micro-leverage's magnification, the effect of micro-leverage and the DETF system on the sensitivity of the accelerometer was obtained. The problem of big error in theoretical calculation of micro-leverage magnification was solved because the structural arrangement of the output beam was ignored in the derivation process. The correctness of the analysis was verified by theoretical calculation, simulation, and the experiment. The equivalent structures of tension (compression) stiffness and flexural stiffness of the micro-leverage output beam were obtained by analyzing and simplifying the composite structure of the link beam and DETF. By simplifying the mechanical model of micro-leverage, the amplification factor K of micro-leverage is deduced to be 23. Therefore, the theoretical sensitivity of the sensor is 15.6 Hz/g. The experimental results show that the sensitivity of the accelerometer with the micro-leverage is 16.1 Hz/g, which is close to the theoretical analysis results.

Design and Characterization of a Novel Biaxial Bionic Hair Flow Sensor Based on Resonant Sensing

This paper presents the design, theoretical analysis, simulation verification, fabrication and prototype characterization of a novel biaxial bionic hair flow sensor based on resonant sensing. Firstly, the device architecture, mainly consists of a polymer hair post, a silicon micro signal transducer and a glass substrate, is described, the theoretical simplified model is established and the mechanical sensitivity to air flow is deducted. Then, the structure simulations based on Ansys software are implemented to preliminarily verify the feasibility of the proposed sensor conception and optimize the structure parameters simultaneously. Subsequently, a closed-loop control scheme based on digital phase-locked loop and an amplitude demodulation algorithm of oscillatory flow velocity based on the least mean square method are proposed to transform and extract the air flow signal, and then verify it by circuit simulations based on SIMULINK. Finally, the fabricated prototype is illustrated and comprehensively tested. The tested prototype possesses an x-axis scale factor of 1.56 Hz/(m/s)² and a y-axis scale factor of 1.81 Hz/(m/s)² for the steady air flow and an x-axis detection threshold of 43.27 mm/s and a y-axis detection threshold of 41.85 mm/s for the oscillatory air flow.

Research on an Artificial Lateral Line System Based on a Bionic Hair Sensor with Resonant Readout

Inspired by the lateral line system of fish, an artificial lateral line system based on bionic hair sensor with resonant readout is presented in this paper. An artificial lateral line system, which possesses great application potential in the field of gas flow visualization, includes two different sensors: a superficial neuromast and a canal neuromast flow velocity sensor, which are used to measure the constant and oscillatory air flow velocity, respectively. The sensitive mechanism of two artificial lateral line sensors is analyzed, and a finite element simulation is implemented to verify the structural design. Then the control circuit of the artificial lateral line system is designed, employing a demodulation algorithm of oscillatory signal based on the least mean square error algorithm, which is used to calculate the oscillatory air flow velocity. Finally, the experiments are implemented to assess the performance of the two artificial lateral line systems. The experimental results show that the artificial lateral line system, which can be used to measure the constant and oscillatory air flow velocity, has a minimum threshold of 0.785 mm/s in the measurement of oscillatory air flow velocity. Moreover, the artificial canal neuromast lateral line system can filter out low-frequency disturbance and has good sensitivity for high-frequency flow velocity.