scholarly journals Recent Developments for Flexible Pressure Sensors: A Review

Micromachines ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (11) ◽  
pp. 580 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fenlan Xu ◽  
Xiuyan Li ◽  
Yue Shi ◽  
Luhai Li ◽  
Wei Wang ◽  
...  

Flexible pressure sensors are attracting great interest from researchers and are widely applied in various new electronic equipment because of their distinct characteristics with high flexibility, high sensitivity, and light weight; examples include electronic skin (E-skin) and wearable flexible sensing devices. This review summarizes the research progress of flexible pressure sensors, including three kinds of transduction mechanisms and their respective research developments, and applications in the fields of E-skin and wearable devices. Furthermore, the challenges and development trends of E-skin and wearable flexible sensors are also briefly discussed. Challenges of developing high extensibility, high sensitivity, and flexible multi-function equipment still exist at present. Exploring new sensing mechanisms, seeking new functional materials, and developing novel integration technology of flexible devices will be the key directions in the sensors field in future.

Polymers ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (20) ◽  
pp. 3465
Author(s):  
Jianli Cui ◽  
Xueli Nan ◽  
Guirong Shao ◽  
Huixia Sun

Researchers are showing an increasing interest in high-performance flexible pressure sensors owing to their potential uses in wearable electronics, bionic skin, and human–machine interactions, etc. However, the vast majority of these flexible pressure sensors require extensive nano-architectural design, which both complicates their manufacturing and is time-consuming. Thus, a low-cost technology which can be applied on a large scale is highly desirable for the manufacture of flexible pressure-sensitive materials that have a high sensitivity over a wide range of pressures. This work is based on the use of a three-dimensional elastic porous carbon nanotubes (CNTs) sponge as the conductive layer to fabricate a novel flexible piezoresistive sensor. The synthesis of a CNTs sponge was achieved by chemical vapor deposition, the basic underlying principle governing the sensing behavior of the CNTs sponge-based pressure sensor and was illustrated by employing in situ scanning electron microscopy. The CNTs sponge-based sensor has a quick response time of ~105 ms, a high sensitivity extending across a broad pressure range (less than 10 kPa for 809 kPa−1) and possesses an outstanding permanence over 4,000 cycles. Furthermore, a 16-pixel wireless sensor system was designed and a series of applications have been demonstrated. Its potential applications in the visualizing pressure distribution and an example of human–machine communication were also demonstrated.


Author(s):  
Yinan Zhao ◽  
Lin Liu ◽  
zhen Li ◽  
Feifei Wang ◽  
Xinxin Chen ◽  
...  

Design and development of flexible pressure sensors with high sensitivity, long-term stability and simple fabrication processes is a key procedure to fulfill the applications in wearable electronics, e-skin and medical...


2021 ◽  
pp. 2101031
Author(s):  
Da Geng ◽  
Songyue Chen ◽  
Rui Chen ◽  
Yuru You ◽  
Chiqian Xiao ◽  
...  

Nanoscale ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 7 (18) ◽  
pp. 8636-8644 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yi Shu ◽  
He Tian ◽  
Yi Yang ◽  
Cheng Li ◽  
Yalong Cui ◽  
...  

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ningning Bai ◽  
Liu Wang ◽  
Qi Wang ◽  
Jue Deng ◽  
Yan Wang ◽  
...  

AbstractSensitivity is a crucial parameter for flexible pressure sensors and electronic skins. While introducing microstructures (e.g., micro-pyramids) can effectively improve the sensitivity, it in turn leads to a limited pressure-response range due to the poor structural compressibility. Here, we report a strategy of engineering intrafillable microstructures that can significantly boost the sensitivity while simultaneously broadening the pressure responding range. Such intrafillable microstructures feature undercuts and grooves that accommodate deformed surface microstructures, effectively enhancing the structural compressibility and the pressure-response range. The intrafillable iontronic sensor exhibits an unprecedentedly high sensitivity (Smin > 220 kPa−1) over a broad pressure regime (0.08 Pa-360 kPa), and an ultrahigh pressure resolution (18 Pa or 0.0056%) over the full pressure range, together with remarkable mechanical stability. The intrafillable structure is a general design expected to be applied to other types of sensors to achieve a broader pressure-response range and a higher sensitivity.


Author(s):  
Jingnan Ma ◽  
Mengmeng Liang ◽  
Wei Wang

Printable flexible pressure sensors have many important applications in wearable systems. One major challenge of such a sensor is to maintain sensing properties in high temperature. By optimizing the curing mechanism of the flexible pressure sensor functional materials, this paper proposes a new method of achieving high temperature properties for a full printed sensor. The establishment of curing theory is mainly studied. The printing process of this kind of sensor is systematically stated and tested to check whether it can continue to function at high temperatures. Ultimately a fully-printed flexible pressure sensor with good temperature performance is achieved. The paper focuses around the technical route of “material selection—theoretical analysis —function material preparation—design and preparation of device—device performance evaluation”. Suitable materials are used in flexible pressure sensors and the curing mechanism is established. This proposed technique can be extended to the development of other printable flexible sensors, which can lead to a huge impact on future applications of the flexible electronics.


Sensors ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 371 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mengmeng Li ◽  
Jiaming Liang ◽  
Xudong Wang ◽  
Min Zhang

Flexible pressure sensors with a high sensitivity in the lower zone of a subtle-pressure regime has shown great potential in the fields of electronic skin, human–computer interaction, wearable devices, intelligent prosthesis, and medical health. Adding microstructures on the dielectric layer on a capacitive pressure sensor has become a common and effective approach to enhance the performance of flexible pressure sensors. Here, we propose a method to further dramatically increase the sensitivity by adding elastic pyramidal microstructures on one side of the electrode and using a thin layer of a dielectric in a capacitive sensor. The sensitivity of the proposed device has been improved from 3.1 to 70.6 kPa−1 compared to capacitive sensors having pyramidal microstructures in the same dimension on the dielectric layer. Moreover, a detection limit of 1 Pa was achieved. The finite element analysis performed based on electromechanical sequential coupling simulation for hyperelastic materials indicates that the microstructures on electrode are critical to achieve high sensitivity. The influence of the duty ratio of the micro-pyramids on the sensitivity of the sensor is analyzed by both simulation and experiment. The durability and robustness of the device was also demonstrated by pressure testing for 2000 cycles.


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