Abstract
Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have a lot of special material properties in application of various fields. In order to reveal these unique properties, it is necessary to integrate CNTs with micro-devices, which can implement the signal interface connection for high-tech electronic products application. This research integrates CNTs and polymer materials with MEMS fabrication processes to manufacture batch and reproducible CNTs micro sensing devices. It is possible to fabricate the material with nano scale on the sensing device with micro scale by developing the integrated manufacturing platform. Moreover, more electrical properties of CNTs can be characterizied. The present research integrates CNTs-polymer composites into three important MEMS fabrication processes: (1) integrating CNTs with polymer micromachining and taking the flexible CNTs-based tactile sensor as the development carrier; (2) integrating CNTs with silicon-based bulk micromachining, and taking the CNT-based pressure sensor, g-sensor, and temperature sensor as the development carrier; (3) integrating 3D CNTs stacks with silicon-based surface micromachining, and taking the CNT-based 3D sensing probe and hair cell sensor as the development carrier. Core fabrication modules and flexible manufacturing platform will be built up to increase the density of CNTs micro-devices. In summary, the presented integrated manufacturing plateform is aiming to bring CNTs micro-devices into mass production, and to spread out more efficient properties and higher value applications.