The Design and numerical simulation of a 3D-printed flexible capacitive pressure sensor with a composite structure

Abstract

Abstract Flexible pressure sensors are crucial for many areas, such as electronic skins, human motion, robot monitoring, and medical treatment. However, conventional manufacturing methods limit the speed and accuracy of manufacturing sensor dielectric layers. In this paper, a unique capacitive pressure sensor with a composite structure is introduced that can be fabricated by 3D printing technology. The structure, which has 3D hierarchical pyramids microstructures and porous substrate, can be directly fabricated by a DLP 3D printer. This allows flexible dielectric layers to be fabricated quickly while maintaining their superior performance. The dimension of the produced sensor is 10×10×4.5 mm3. The sensor’s design process, numerical simulation, and performance are provided and elucidated. The performance of the sensor is measured between 0 and 1 MPa. It has low hysteresis and high sensitivity (6.83 MPa−1 within the scope of 0 to 0.5 MPa and 2.56 MPa−1 within the scope of 0.5 to 1 MPa).