Abstract
Flexible pressure sensors are widely used in different fields, especially in human motion, robot monitoring and medical treatment. Herein, a flexible pressure sensor consists of the flat top plate, and the microstructured bottom plate is developed. Both plates are made of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) by molding from the 3D printed template. The contact surfaces of the top and bottom plates are coated with a mixture of poly (3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) poly (styrene sulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS) and polyurethane dispersion (PUD) as stretchable film electrodes with carbon nanotubes on the electrode surface. By employing 3D printing technology, using digital light processing (DLP), the fabrication of the sensor is low-cost and fast. The sensor models with different microstructures are first analyzed by the Finite Element Method (FEM), and then the models are fabricated and tested. The sensor with 5 × 5 hemispheres has a sensitivity of 3.54 × 10−3 S/kPa in the range of 0–22.2 kPa. The zero-temperature coefficient is −0.0064%FS/°C. The durability test is carried out for 2000 cycles, and it remains stable during the whole test. This work represents progress in flexible pressure sensing and demonstrates the advantages of 3D printing technology in sensor processing.
Highlights
IntroductionDue to the wide application of flexible pressure sensors in human motion [1,2,3], robot monitoring [4,5] and medical treatment [6,7,8,9], research on flexible pressure sensors has become popular in the past decade
We discussed the influence of protrusions with different morphologies and different density distributions on flexible pressure sensors performance and developed a new method of manufacturing sensors based on 3D printing technology
The elastic top and bottom plates of the sensor with micro-structure protrusions were made of PDMS, and the surfaces of the plates were coated with a conductive film, which was made from a mixture of PEDOT:PSS and polyurethane dispersion (PUD), and a layer of CNTs covered it
Summary
Due to the wide application of flexible pressure sensors in human motion [1,2,3], robot monitoring [4,5] and medical treatment [6,7,8,9], research on flexible pressure sensors has become popular in the past decade. Such sensors with high flexibility can convert pressure information input into an electrical signal output. Capacitive sensors usually have two electrodes, sandwiching a dielectric layer. By using different dielectric materials, changing the electrode size, etc., capacitive sensors meeting different requirements can be designed. Due to the limitation of the size of electrodes, the capacitance is small, and the stray capacitance is relatively large, which is susceptible to external interference and affects the measurement accuracy
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