Soft and Morphable Displays and Profilometers: Self-Assembled Out-of-Plane by Capillary Pressure Acting on a Gel

Saravanavel, Ganapathy and Raghunandan, Karthik and Sambandan, Sanjiv (2016) Soft and Morphable Displays and Profilometers: Self-Assembled Out-of-Plane by Capillary Pressure Acting on a Gel. In: IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ELECTRON DEVICES, 63 (5). pp. 2023-2028.

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Abstract

High aspect ratio, conductive sharp tips have geometrical advantages in sensing and actuation. Developing these structures on soft, stretchable and bendable materials would provide distinct advantages, such as conformable sensors for biosignals, morphable displays, profilometers for curved surfaces, and so on. A major challenge in using soft materials as substrates is that the fabrication technique should be conducted in close to ambient conditions, particularly at low temperature. In this paper, the fabrication of high aspect ratio conductive sharp tips on elastomers is discussed. Without using fine feature molds, a capillary bridge is created by containing and separating a conductive viscous gel between two plates. The capillary pressure experienced by the capillary bridge shapes the gel to a sharp tip (similar to 100 nm) before it solidifies. The process flow is quantified by measuring the mechanical force needed for tip creation and extracting the coefficients of the standard linear solid model for the viscoelastic gel. Electron emission is demonstrated at 22 mu bar and 1 mbar, and appears to be determined by Fowler-Nordheim tunneling for most cases. Elastomeric field emission displays and profilometers are demonstrated.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Publication:	IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ELECTRON DEVICES
Publisher:	IEEE-INST ELECTRICAL ELECTRONICS ENGINEERS INC
Additional Information:	Copy right for this article belongs to the IEEE-INST ELECTRICAL ELECTRONICS ENGINEERS INC, 445 HOES LANE, PISCATAWAY, NJ 08855-4141 USA
Keywords:	Elastomers; electron emitters; field emission displays; flexible electronics; profilometry
Department/Centre:	Division of Physical & Mathematical Sciences > Instrumentation Appiled Physics
Date Deposited:	10 Jun 2016 07:34
Last Modified:	10 Jun 2016 07:34
URI:	http://eprints.iisc.ac.in/id/eprint/53879

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