Lowering the sensory threshold and enhancing the responsivity of biomimetic hair flow sensors by electrostatic spring softening

We report improvements in detection limit and responsivity of biomimetic hair flow sensors by electrostatic spring-softening (ESS). Applying a DC voltage to our capacitive flow sensors results in a reduced sensory threshold, which gives an improvement for the flow detection limit of more than 30%. In addition, the mechanical transfer shows large (80% and more) voltage-controlled electro-mechanical amplification of the flow signal for frequencies below the sensor's resonance.