Design, manufacture and testing of capacitive pressure sensors for low-pressure measurement ranges
- Submitting institution
-
Heriot-Watt University
- Unit of assessment
- 32 - Art and Design: History, Practice and Theory
- Output identifier
- 14974467
- Type
- D - Journal article
- DOI
-
10.3390/mi8020041
- Title of journal
- Micromachines
- Article number
- 41
- First page
- -
- Volume
- 8
- Issue
- 2
- ISSN
- 2072-666X
- Open access status
- Compliant
- Month of publication
- February
- Year of publication
- 2017
- URL
-
-
- Supplementary information
-
-
- Request cross-referral to
- -
- Output has been delayed by COVID-19
- No
- COVID-19 affected output statement
- -
- Forensic science
- No
- Criminology
- No
- Interdisciplinary
- No
- Number of additional authors
-
4
- Research group(s)
-
-
- Proposed double-weighted
- No
- Reserve for an output with double weighting
- No
- Additional information
- This co-authored and peer-reviewed output was published in Micromachines, which is an open-access MDPI journal with an international readership and impact factor of 2.426, this paper has been cited 22 times. Macintyre was a co-investigator on this project and co-author on this paper, contributing to setting the performance specification and testing requirements for the new sensor reported here.
The paper presents the design, manufacture and testing protocols for a novel, flexible micro-structured capacitive pressure sensor. Details of the materials, nano-scale construction and production stages are provided in the paper along with details of the initial functional laboratory testing of prototype sensors for, difficult to measure, interface pressures below 50mmHg. The paper details the processes used to fabricate and evaluate the prototype sensors, underlying theory and the limitations of prototype iterations to date and how they may be overcome in future prototypes and in full-scale manufacture of final products. The results reported here show great promise for further development and future use as an effective, low cost and easy to use sensor that could transform our understanding of compression products for medical and sporting use.
This research was instigated by Macintyre and Desmulliez to address the need for an accurate pressure sensor to measure the pressures exerted by garments on the human body. Although such sensors are commercially available, the literature reports many problems with existing sensors, including one paper written by Macintyre and submitted to REF 2014. The need for the research presented in this paper was identified through Macintyre’s compression research dating back to 1996, the collaboration that led to this work and publication began in 2013 and is ongoing. The technologies arising from this project are being filed for patent (in 2020) and Macintyre is listed on the patent as one of four co-inventors.
- Author contribution statement
- -
- Non-English
- No
- English abstract
- -
