Microscale Electrospinning of Polymer Nanowires for Sensing Applications

A new chip-scale interconnection technology based on microscale electrospinning of polymer nanowires is proposed. In phase I, polymer fiber interconnections were produced between microscale components on the surface of a chip using only electrostatic forces. The orientation and physical properties of the fibers were found to depend on the processing conditions and can be controlled for particular applications such as chemical sensing or optical computing. The technique has proven to be generic and robust and can be applied to a wide variety of polymeric materials and composits. In phase II we propose to develop prototype chemical and infrared sensors based on microspun arrays of polymer nanowires. Due to the high surface to volume ratio and low thermal mass, the proposed sensors are expected to provide a level of performance far suprassing existing technologies.