Integrated Fiber Flow Sensors for Microfluidic Interconnects

Abstract Thermal flow sensors in multimaterial fibers that overcome the fundamental trade‐off between sensitivity, pressure drop, measurement range, and temperature rise are demonstrated. Significant performance improvement over existing microelectromechanical systems flow sensors is realized with the use of conductive polymers as hot films and multisegment structures unique to fiber fabrication processes. This unconventional form of flow sensors paves the way toward multifunctional microfluidics feed lines needed in large‐scale multichip integration in microfluidics and opens new possibilities in lab‐on‐fiber technologies.