High-Sensitivity Flexible Pressure Sensor With Low Working Voltage Based on Sphenoid Microstructure

Abstract

Flexible pressure sensors have attracted significant attention in field of electronic skin, medical equipment, and soft robotics. However, the poor sensing performance and high working voltage have hindered their practical applications. Here, a low-voltage wearable pressure sensor with high sensitivity in a large useable range is demonstrated. The pressure sensor has been designed with a random distributed sphenoid surface and highly conductive silver films, exhibiting an excellent sensitivity of 5.9 kPa <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">-1</sup> with a wide linearity of 0-15 kPa and ultralow operating voltage of 20 mV. Meanwhile, the flexible pressure sensor could be used for sensitively monitoring human physiological signals, such as wrist pulse, voice recognition, and human activities. Furthermore, a resistive pressure sensor array has been applied for detecting the spatial distribution of external pressure, indicating huge potential as wearable detectors for self-powered real-time monitoring human healthcare.