Issue 63, 2017, Issue in Progress

Flexible piezocapacitive sensors based on wrinkled microstructures: toward low-cost fabrication of pressure sensors over large areas

Abstract

Flexible pressure sensors are a key component of electronic skin (e-skin) for use in future applications ranging from human healthcare monitoring to robotic skins and environmental risk detection. Here, we demonstrated the development of a highly sensitive, simple, and low-cost capacitive pressure sensor, which acted as a flexible capacitive dielectric, based on a microstructured elastomeric template that could be fabricated over a large area. To achieve this goal, the dielectric template was prepared simply by stretching and releasing a flexible Ecoflex film to produce wrinkled surface microstructures with a feature size on the order of tens of micrometers. The effects of the wrinkled surface microstructure on the sensing performance were systematically investigated by comparing the nonwrinkled film, one-side wrinkled film, and double-side wrinkled film. The response and release times of the double-side wrinkled pressure sensor were improved by 42% and 25% in comparison with the values obtained from the unwrinkled case, respectively. These results showed that the introduction of wrinkled surface microstructures to the elastomeric template efficiently enhanced the pressure sensor performance. We also demonstrated that our sensor could be used to detect a variety of changes in the surroundings, such as variations in the angle of a stimulus, object loading/unloading, or an exhaled breath.

Graphical abstract: Flexible piezocapacitive sensors based on wrinkled microstructures: toward low-cost fabrication of pressure sensors over large areas

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
23 Jun 2017
Accepted
05 Aug 2017
First published
14 Aug 2017
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY license

RSC Adv., 2017,7, 39420-39426

Flexible piezocapacitive sensors based on wrinkled microstructures: toward low-cost fabrication of pressure sensors over large areas

S. Baek, H. Jang, S. Y. Kim, H. Jeong, S. Han, Y. Jang, D. H. Kim and H. S. Lee, RSC Adv., 2017, 7, 39420 DOI: 10.1039/C7RA06997A

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported Licence. You can use material from this article in other publications without requesting further permissions from the RSC, provided that the correct acknowledgement is given.

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