New ultra-light flexible large area thin film position sensitive detector based on amorphous silicon

In this paper we report on large area one dimensional(1D) amorphous silicon position sensors deposited on flexible polymer foil substrate. The pin sensor structure was deposited by rf plasma enhanced chemical vapour deposition (PECVD). For the electrical and optical characterisation the sensors have been mounted on a convex holder with a 14-mm radius-of-curvature, since the main goal of this work is to develop a flexible position sensor to be incorporated in a micromotor in order to measure its angular velocity continuously. The obtained sensors present adequate performances concerning the position non-linearity (+/-1% in 20 mm length), comparable to those fabricated on glass substrates. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. AU rights reserved.