Performance evaluation of post-curing method for sensitivity enhancement of elastomer vibration sensors

Abstract

Elastomer foams are emerging as low-cost and high-sensitivity platforms for pressure sensors and vibration sensors in various use cases ranging from biomedical and wearable device applications to machine health monitoring. The sensitivity of these sensors to high frequency vibrations is limited by the stiffness of the exo-skeleton of the foam. Industrial applications such as machine health monitoring require development of cost-effective methods for enhancing the high frequency sensitivity. In this paper, we investigate the feasibility of utilizing post-curing as an effective post-processing step to enhance the sensitivity of PDMS elastomer vibration sensors. The thermal stability of the PDMS elastomer sensors is studied through thermogravimetric analysis, and the impact of curing time for post-curing performed at 200 ∘C on the sensor performance is studied in detail. The efficacy of this method is demonstrated via experimental measurements obtained on a motorized force measurement set-up (stiffness measurement) and vibration generator system (frequency response measurement).