A Glass-Like Carbon MEMS Strain Sensor

Glass-like carbon (GC) has been widely used in micronano devices due to its excellent properties such as hardness, biocompatibility, and chemical inertness. In this work we investigate, for the first time, the piezoresistive behavior of GC in view of its potential applications in strain sensors. In particular, we present the structural and electrical properties of SU-8 derived GC thin films together with the fabrication and characterization of GC-based strain sensors. When mechanical displacement is applied to the GC strain sensors, the average gauge factors of the GC piezo-resistors pyrolyzed at 700 and 900°C are 7.3 and 2.0, respectively.