Soft touch sensors with memory elements embedded in skin

ESR9

Objectives

Develop graphene based highly sensitive touch and strain sensors connected with memristors and embedded in soft materials such as eco-flex. The graphene is chosen as its optical transparency will allow us to study the transmission of external stimuli through the soft material surrounding the sensors. This will help us to establish the role of skin mechanics through artificial means. The fabrication and electro-optic characterization of flexible electrodes and touch and strain sensors will be carried out. For memristors, the dry fabrication (i.e. free from conventional chemical processing) of graphene oxide (GO) will be carried out by plasma oxidation. For counter electrode graphene will be transfer printed on top of GO and a thin gold layer will be deposited at the edges of sample for electrical contacts. The graphene-based sensors will have planar capacitive structures. The sensors will be interfaced with compact electronics developed in other projects.

Expected Results

Novel touch sensor with memory like effect to mimic the viscoelastic behavior of skin.

Placement

Host institution: University of Glasgow

Enrolments (in Doctoral degree): University of Glasgow

Supervisors

Ravinder Dahiya, Georges Gielen

Presentation of ESR9

I am Yalagala Bhavani Prasad currently working as a Marie ESR in the University of Glasgow. My research expertise in the nanofabrication of different novel devices and its electrical testing especially sensors, photodetectors and memristors. I am experienced in the synthesis and characterization of novel materials since last 5 years and published more than 10 research articles and conference papers (total) in various reputed international journals. I have more than 4 years of experience in the cleanroom and the hands-on experience with multiple equipment’s like physical vapor deposition, chemical vapor deposition, spin coater, photolithography, laser writer etc.  Currently my project is based on the fabrication of flexible sensors, memristors and its integration to explore towards the bio-mimic of the soft e-skin.