Flexible Li-doped ZnO piezotronic transistor array for in-plane strain mapping

Thin film is a good choice for in-plane strain sensing and is also technical compatible with modern electronic industry. In this paper, a thin film based piezotronic transistors array was demonstrated for the first time. The piezotronic effect of the sensing units was investigated and qualitative characterized. The strain sensitivity (gauge factor) of the units was derived up to 199, which is around 100 times of the sensitivity of the commercial foil gauge. After calibration on every sensing unit, the distribution of the strain applied on the device was successfully measured and mapped by the sensor array, which show the big potential of the thin film based piezotronic transistors array on the application of high space resolution, high sensitivity field deformation sensing.