As an important branch of wearable electronics, flexible pressure sensors have attracted extensive research owing to their wide range of applications, such as human–machine interfaces and health monitoring. To fulfill the requirements for different applications, new material design and device fabrication strategies have been developed in order to manipulate the mechanical and electrical properties and enhance device performance. In this paper, the important progresses in flexible pressure sensor development over recent years are selectively reviewed from a material and application perspective. First, an overview of the fundamental working mechanism and the systematic design approach is presented. Particularly, how the theoretical modeling has been used as an auxiliary tool to achieve better sensing performance is discussed. A number of applications, including human–machine interfaces, electronic skin and health monitoring, and certain application‐driven functions, e.g., pressure distribution visualization and direction‐sensitive force detection, are highlighted. Lastly, various advanced manufacturing methods used for realizing large‐scale fabrication are introduced.

Emerging Technologies of Flexible Pressure Sensors: Materials, Modeling, Devices, and Manufacturing

High-performance flexible pressure sensors are highly desirable in health monitoring, robotic tactile, and artificial intelligence. Construction of microstructures in dielectrics and electrodes is the dominating approach to improving the performance of capacitive pressure sensors. Herein, we have demonstrated a novel three-dimensional microconformal graphene electrode for ultrasensitive and tunable flexible capacitive pressure sensors. Because the fabrication process is controllable, the morphologies of the graphene that is perfectly conformal with the electrode are controllable consequently. Multiscale morphologies ranging from a few nanometers to hundreds of nanometers, even to tens of micrometers, have been systematically investigated, and the high-performance capacitive pressure sensor with high sensitivity (3.19 kPa–1), fast response (30 ms), ultralow detection limit (1 mg), tunable-sensitivity, high flexibility, and high stability was obtained. Furthermore, an ultrasensitivity of 7.68 kPa–1 was succ...

Flexible, Tunable, and Ultrasensitive Capacitive Pressure Sensor with Microconformal Graphene Electrodes

Recently, sensors that can imitate human skin have received extensive attention. Capacitive sensors have a simple structure, low loss, no temperature drift, and other excellent properties, and can be applied in the fields of robotics, human-machine interactions, medical care, and health monitoring. Polymer matrices are commonly employed in flexible capacitive sensors because of their high flexibility. However, their volume is almost unchanged when pressure is applied, and they are inherently viscoelastic. These shortcomings severely lead to high hysteresis and limit the improvement in sensitivity. Therefore, considerable efforts have been applied to improve the sensing performance by designing different microstructures of materials. Herein, two types of sensors based on the applied forces are discussed, including pressure sensors and strain sensors. Currently, five types of microstructures are commonly used in pressure sensors, while four are used in strain sensors. The advantages, disadvantages, and practical values of the different structures are systematically elaborated. Finally, future perspectives of microstructures for capacitive sensors are discussed, with the aim of providing a guide for designing advanced flexible and stretchable capacitive sensors via ingenious human-made microstructures.

Flexible and Stretchable Capacitive Sensors with Different Microstructures

The authors acknowledge the generous support of King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST). The authors thank Kelly Rader for proofreading this manuscript.

Recent Progress on Flexible Capacitive Pressure Sensors: From Design and Materials to Applications

3D printing has attracted a lot of attention in recent years. Over the past three decades, various 3D printing technologies have been developed including photopolymerization-based, materials extrusion-based, sheet lamination-based, binder jetting-based, power bed fusion-based and direct energy deposition-based processes. 3D printing offers unparalleled flexibility and simplicity in the fabrication of highly complex 3D objects. Tactile sensors that emulate human tactile perceptions are used to translate mechanical signals such as force, pressure, strain, shear, torsion, bend, vibration, etc. into electrical signals and play a crucial role toward the realization of wearable electronics and electronic skin. To date, many types of 3D printing technologies have been applied in the manufacturing of various types of tactile sensors including piezoresistive, capacitive and piezoelectric sensors. This review attempts to summarize the current state-of-the-art 3D printing technologies and their applications in tactile sensors for wearable electronics and electronic skin. The applications are categorized into five aspects: 3D-printed molds for microstructuring substrate, electrodes and sensing element; 3D-printed flexible sensor substrate and sensor body for tactile sensors; 3D-printed sensing element; 3D-printed flexible and stretchable electrodes for tactile sensors; and fully 3D-printed tactile sensors. Latest advances in the fabrication of tactile sensors by 3D printing are reviewed and the advantages and limitations of various 3D printing technologies and printable materials are discussed. Finally, future development of 3D-printed tactile sensors is discussed.

3D Printing Technologies for Flexible Tactile Sensors toward Wearable Electronics and Electronic Skin.

Flexible pressure sensors are crucial for E-skins to enable tactile sensing capabilities. However, flexible pressure sensors often exhibit high hysteretic response caused by internal and external mechanical dissipations in flexible materials. The hysteresis gives rise to reliability issues, especially in the presence of dynamic stress. In this letter, we report a flexible capacitive pressure sensor design with hierarchically microstructured electrodes to obtain both high sensitivity and low hysteresis. The sparsely spaced large pyramid microstructure improves the sensitivity, whereas the small pyramid reduces the hysteresis caused by interfacial adhesion. The optimized sensor shows excellent performances in terms of high sensitivity (~3.73 kPa−1), ultralow detection limits (0.1 Pa), significantly reduced hysteresis (~4.42%), and enhanced sensing capability for pluses, which demonstrates its potential for advanced electronic skins.

Flexible Pressure Sensor With High Sensitivity and Low Hysteresis Based on a Hierarchically Microstructured Electrode

The invention discloses a high-sensitivity capacitive flexible pressure sensor which comprises the components of a multilayer microstructure material, a capacitor upper electrode which adheres the multilayer microstructure material, a dielectric material, and a capacitor lower electrode on the lower material of the dielectric material. The multilayer microstructure material and the dielectric material surface are combined parallelly. The multilayer microstructure material has a structure that the shape of the longitudinal cross section is a plurality of pyramids which are in surface distribution and arrangement, similar pyramids with smooth edges, semi-spheres, ellipsoid, cones or V-shaped members. The multilayer microstructure material is made of a polymer elastic material.

High-sensitivity capacitive flexible pressure sensor

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Flexible Pressure Sensor With High Sensitivity and Low Hysteresis Based on a Hierarchically Microstructured Electrode

High-sensitivity capacitive flexible pressure sensor