Structural design and controlled fabrication of advanced airflow sensors

Airflow sensors are in huge demand in many fields such as the aerospace industry, weather forecasting, environmental monitoring, chemical and biological engineering, health monitoring, wearable smart devices, etc. Faced with the growing need in intelligent and integrated applications, airflow sensors with higher performance, improved compatibility and multiple functions have attracted wide attention in the fields of sensing, mechanics, and nanotechnology, while the great challenges in structural design and controlled fabrication still remain. So far, researchers have developed various strategies and techniques in the aspects of functional materials, device configurations, and integrated systems, enabling more advanced applications for airflow sensors. In this review, we first introduce the basic working mechanisms of airflow sensors, followed by the proceedings in functional materials and device configurations. The progress in the system integration of airflow sensors is also summarized to demonstrate their compatibility with other functional devices, which leads to their great potential in various application demonstrations. Finally, the possible directions for optimizing airflow sensing performance and broadening application scenarios are listed.