Highly sensitive, biomimetic hair sensor arrays for sensing low-frequency air flows

In this paper, we report, to the best of our knowledge, the most sensitive artificial hair-based flow-sensor arrays operating in air, to date. Artificial hair sensors are bio-inspired from the cerci of crickets, one of nature’s best in sensing small air flows. The presented hair sensor arrays aim to realize comparable sensitivity to nature by means of model-based design optimizations and were fabricated using advanced MEMS technologies. The presented artificial hair sensor arrays display a clear figure-of-eight response and show remarkable sensitivities to oscillating air flows down to 0.85 mm/s surpassing noise levels at 1 kHz operational bandwidths