This work utilizes piezoelectric MEMS pressure sensors employing a combination of PZT composite material and silicon by using micromachining techniques developed for underwater sensing. Two dimensional arrays of 2 × 5 sensors were packaged on flexible LCP substrates and were encapsulated in PDMS before mounting on the kayak.

Figure 1: (a) a 2D array of 10 sensors arranged in two rows, mounted on a flexible LCP substrate. (b) piezoresistive sensor array readily mountable on stream line bodies.

Figure 2: The arrays of sensors were tested in a reservoir for various pressure signals. During the pool test, results show that the MEMS sensors were able to generate the same output signals as the commercial sensors.

Figure 3: Results from the pitching test. Left: Raw sensor data, and filtered sensor data. Right: Power spectrum of pitching test data.