Piezoresistivity of n-type conductive ultrananocrystalline diamond

•Piezoresistive characteristics of n-type conductive ultrananocrystalline diamond have been investigated.•Highest gauge factor (k = 9.5) was found at RT for longitudinal arrangement and a sheet resistance of about 30 kΩ/square.•Gauge factor increases with sheet resistance of the piezoresistor and decreases with temperature.

Recent developments of a piezoresistive sensor prototype based on n-type conductive ultrananocrystalline diamond (UNCD) are presented. Samples were deposited using hot filament chemical vapor deposition (HFCVD) technique, with a gas mixture of H2, CH4 and NH3, and were structured using multiple photolithographic and etching processes. Under controlled deposition parameters, UNCD thin films with n-type electrical conductivity at room temperature (5 × 10− 3 - 5 × 101 S/cm) could be grown. Respective piezoresistive response of such films was analyzed and the gauge factor was evaluated in both transverse and longitudinal arrangements, also as a function of temperature from 25 °C up to 300 °C. Moreover, the gauge factor of piezoresistors with various sheet resistance values and test structure geometries was evaluated. The highest measured gauge factor was 9.54 ± 0.32 at room temperature for a longitudinally arranged piezoresistor with a sheet resistance of about 30 kΩ/square. This gauge factor is well comparable to that of p-type boron doped diamond; however, with a much better temperature independency at elevated temperatures compared to the boron-doped diamond and silicon. To our best knowledge, this is the first report on piezoresistive characteristics of n-type UNCD films.