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 flowsensor 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.