Preparation and characterization of multifunctional thin film sensors based on amorphous diamond-like-carbon

Amorphous carbon thin films also named diamond-like-carbon (DLC) are well known for their hardness, wear resistant and low friction behavior in tribological contacts. This paper deals with an additional aspect of this material, namely piezoresistivity of DLC films, which makes DLC based coatings to novel multifunctional surfaces with superior sensoric properties. DLC was prepared at low temperatures (<150/spl deg/C) with piezo k-factors of some 100 to 1200. We show that this excellent coating can be prepared with optimum properties for force/pressure transducer and tribological coating as well. This allows direct measurements at mechanically treated surfaces.