Flexible M-Tooth Hybrid Micro-Structure-Based Capacitive Pressure Sensor With High Sensitivity and Wide Sensing Range

Abstract

A novel flexible capacitive pressure sensor based on hybrid micro-structured (HM) polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) dielectric layer was developed. The HM-PDMS with M-tooth structured patterns was fabricated using a laser engraved acrylic master mold. The top and bottom electrodes were fabricated by depositing silver (Ag) on flexible polyethylene terephthalate (PET) substrate using additive screen-printing process. The pressure sensor was assembled by sandwiching two HM-PDMS based dielectric layers between the top and bottom electrodes. The capability of the developed pressure sensor to detect a wide range of pressure was investigated by applying varying pressure from 0 to 1 kPa, 1 to 10 kPa, and 10 kPa to 40 kPa. A sensitivity of 51.36% kPa-1, 8.37% kPa-1, and 2.46% kPa-1 was obtained for the pressure ranges of 0 to 1 kPa, 1 to 10 kPa, and 10 to 40 kPa, respectively. The capacitive pressure sensor response, hysteresis, and repeatability of the fabricated pressure sensor is investigated and presented in this paper. To demonstrate the wide sensing range of the pressure sensor, the sensor was attached to face mask for breath monitoring applications that require low pressure sensing of ~20 Pa, and to the hand glove for fingertip pressure monitoring applications that require relatively high pressure sensing of ~3 kPa.