{"title":"Efficient and Robust Fabrication of Soft Sensors via Injection With Auxiliary Suction in Multilayered Microchannels With a Liquid Metal Alloy","authors":"Hyungseok Yoon;Seung-Won Kim","doi":"10.1109/JSEN.2025.3575503","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"From 2011 to August 2024, 795 papers have utilized liquid metals like eutectic gallium-indium alloy (EGaIn) or Galinstan in microfluidic systems, flexible electronics, and soft robotics, as reported in the Scopus database. The most common manufacturing techniques include manual needle injection, stencil printing, direct writing, and vacuum filling, with manual needle injection being the most prevalent due to its simplicity and cost-effectiveness. However, this method often results in high failure rates and inconsistent outcomes due to manual variability. Other techniques also present challenges, such as high setup costs and limitations based on material stiffness. To address these issues, a needle injection with an auxiliary suction method has been introduced. This approach enhances manufacturing success and consistency, especially in multilayered microchannel structures with varying material stiffness. The incorporation of auxiliary suction reduces fabrication time by 25.3% and decreases pressure on the microfluidic channels by 10.3%, leading to more stable and reliable production of multilayered microchannel soft sensors. This method is expected to significantly advance liquid metal-based applications by providing a more efficient, affordable, and reliable fabrication process.","PeriodicalId":447,"journal":{"name":"IEEE Sensors Journal","volume":"25 13","pages":"23948-23957"},"PeriodicalIF":4.3000,"publicationDate":"2025-06-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"IEEE Sensors Journal","FirstCategoryId":"103","ListUrlMain":"https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/11027653/","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"综合性期刊","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"ENGINEERING, ELECTRICAL & ELECTRONIC","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
From 2011 to August 2024, 795 papers have utilized liquid metals like eutectic gallium-indium alloy (EGaIn) or Galinstan in microfluidic systems, flexible electronics, and soft robotics, as reported in the Scopus database. The most common manufacturing techniques include manual needle injection, stencil printing, direct writing, and vacuum filling, with manual needle injection being the most prevalent due to its simplicity and cost-effectiveness. However, this method often results in high failure rates and inconsistent outcomes due to manual variability. Other techniques also present challenges, such as high setup costs and limitations based on material stiffness. To address these issues, a needle injection with an auxiliary suction method has been introduced. This approach enhances manufacturing success and consistency, especially in multilayered microchannel structures with varying material stiffness. The incorporation of auxiliary suction reduces fabrication time by 25.3% and decreases pressure on the microfluidic channels by 10.3%, leading to more stable and reliable production of multilayered microchannel soft sensors. This method is expected to significantly advance liquid metal-based applications by providing a more efficient, affordable, and reliable fabrication process.
期刊介绍:
The fields of interest of the IEEE Sensors Journal are the theory, design , fabrication, manufacturing and applications of devices for sensing and transducing physical, chemical and biological phenomena, with emphasis on the electronics and physics aspect of sensors and integrated sensors-actuators. IEEE Sensors Journal deals with the following:
-Sensor Phenomenology, Modelling, and Evaluation
-Sensor Materials, Processing, and Fabrication
-Chemical and Gas Sensors
-Microfluidics and Biosensors
-Optical Sensors
-Physical Sensors: Temperature, Mechanical, Magnetic, and others
-Acoustic and Ultrasonic Sensors
-Sensor Packaging
-Sensor Networks
-Sensor Applications
-Sensor Systems: Signals, Processing, and Interfaces
-Actuators and Sensor Power Systems
-Sensor Signal Processing for high precision and stability (amplification, filtering, linearization, modulation/demodulation) and under harsh conditions (EMC, radiation, humidity, temperature); energy consumption/harvesting
-Sensor Data Processing (soft computing with sensor data, e.g., pattern recognition, machine learning, evolutionary computation; sensor data fusion, processing of wave e.g., electromagnetic and acoustic; and non-wave, e.g., chemical, gravity, particle, thermal, radiative and non-radiative sensor data, detection, estimation and classification based on sensor data)
-Sensors in Industrial Practice