Design and Fabrication of a Multi-Axis MEMS Force Sensor with Integrated Carbon Nanotube Based Piezoresistors

Carbon nanotube-based strain sensors have the potential to overcome many of the limitations in small-scale force/displacement sensing technologies due to their small size and high strain sensitivity. In this paper, we will present the design and fabrication of a multi-axis MEMS force sensor with integrated carbon nanotube based piezoresistive sensors. We will show that through proper sensor design and fabrication it is possible to improve the performance of these sensors by several orders of magnitude and produce nanoscale sensors with a dynamic range of greater than 80 dB. Overall, the force sensor presented in this paper has a resolution of 5.6 nN and a range up to 84 mu N.