Thin Film Sensors
The evolution of sensors in today’s world has been driven by numerous technological advances and an explosion of new demand/ applications. It is evident that as we continue to grow as a society, there are limitless ways to advance our capabilities as it pertains to health, labor, safety, transportation and economic prosperity. Sensors are becoming extremely common in our everyday lives and can be found in such items as clothing, machinery, photovoltaics, analysis of light, pressure, gas, temperature, speed, and a wide variety of health monitoring equipment. Sensor technology is frequently based on thin film technologies; principally physical vapor deposition (e.g., magnetron sputtering and thermal evaporation), and even when they incorporate additive manufacturing (such as printing and device attach) or microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), the interfaces and multi-layer material sets of the resulting sensor structures require expert knowledge of surface and thin films engineering. The competencies found in the thin film and surface engineering community can provide solutions to advance the overall capability and efficiency of these devices. This advancement will not only accelerate the adoption of existing applications, but also enables new sensor applications and modalities.
Topics of interest to this session will include:
- Advanced photonic sensing materials design and fabrications,
- Nano plasmonic materials for environmental sensing applications,
- Sensing modalities enabled by microfluidics and selective surface functionalities, and
- Flexible sensing materials and devices for wearable health monitoring applications.
This session /TAC seeks to connect thin film and surface engineering technologies to the myriad applications driven by the connectivity opportunities of the Internet of Things (IoT). Contributions that focus on novel solutions, techniques, and manufacturing challenges are of particular interest.
Thin Film Sensors TAC Chairs: Jason Hrebik, Kurt J. Lesker Company, jasonh@lesker.com; Maciej Lisiak, Futek, mlisiak@futek.com; Binbin Weng, University of Oklahoma, binbinweng@ou.edu