Amplified chemomechanical comb gas sensor

We present a new type of amplified chemomechanical comb-type capacitive gas sensors (ACMs) consisting of a set of flexible sense fingers with asymmetric absorbing polymer patches and side electrodes. This device combines the high sensitivity features of stress-deformed gas sensors and parametric amplification. Preliminary experiments with water and ethanol vapors indicate that the sensitivity of these devices can be increased 3-4 fold via parametric gain induced by biasing one of the side electrodes. This gain can be further increased by symmetrically biasing the side fingers.