Pencil drawing of a sensor actually is a sensor
Friday, February 28, 2014 - 12:01
in Physics & Chemistry
Using graphite pencils to draw on regular paper, researchers can make some very inexpensive piezoresistive (PZR) sensors. Due to the piezoresistive effect, a sensor's resistance changes under an applied strain, allowing it to sense mechanical stress and pressure. The first of these pencil-on-paper PZR sensors was fabricated a few years ago as an alternative to silicon PZR sensors, which are costly and require sophisticated fabrication processes.