Abstract
In this study, a novel approach to the fabrication of a multimodal temperature and force sensor on ultrathin, conformable and flexible substrates is presented. This process involves coupling a charge-modulated organic field-effect transistor (OCMFET) with a pyro/piezoelectric element, namely a commercial film of poly-vinylene difluoride (PVDF). The proposed device is able to respond to both pressure stimuli and temperature variations, demonstrating the feasibility of the approach for the development of low-cost, highly sensitive and conformable multimodal sensors. The overall thickness of the device is 1.2 μm, being thus able to conform to any surface (including the human body), while keeping its electrical performance. Furthermore, it is possible to discriminate between simultaneously applied temperature and pressure stimuli by coupling sensing surfaces made of poled and unpoled spin-coated PVDF-trifluoroethylene (PVDF-TrFE, a PVDF copolymer) with OCMFETs. This demonstrates the possibility of creating multimodal sensors that can be employed for applications in several fields, ranging from robotics to wearable electronics.
Highlights
The increasing ubiquity of portable and wearable technologies has resulted in an increasing interest in flexible, conformable and lightweight electronic devices
An interesting example of this new trend is represented by the work of John Roger’s group, who has investigated materials that are able to replicate the mechanical properties of the skin by proposing a novel approach towards the development of a variety of conformable “epidermal electronic systems”
Other interesting approaches have been proposed to design ultra-flexible electronics for biomedical applications, such as the one proposed by Campana et al.[8], who presented a conformable organic electrochemical transistor (OECT) on a fully resorbable bioscaffold manufactured using poly (L-lactide-co-glycolide) for recording electrocardiographic (ECG) data
Summary
The increasing ubiquity of portable and wearable technologies has resulted in an increasing interest in flexible, conformable and lightweight electronic devices. An interesting example of this new trend is represented by the work of John Roger’s group, who has investigated materials that are able to replicate the mechanical properties of the skin by proposing a novel approach towards the development of a variety of conformable “epidermal electronic systems”. These systems are engineered in order to adhere to the skin and they include several kinds of electronic devices, such as sensors, light-emitting diodes, photodetectors[7]. An ideal tactile sensor should be capable of simulating the sensing behavior of the human skin in terms of the spatial resolution and sensitivity and dynamic range for sensing force and temperature[18]
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