Flexible tactile sensors with high sensitivity, a broad
pressure
detection range, and high resolution are highly desired for the applications
of health monitoring, robots, and the human–machine interface.
However, it is still challenging to realize a tactile sensor with
high sensitivity and resolution over a wide detection range. Herein,
to solve the abovementioned problem, we demonstrate a universal route
to develop a highly sensitive tactile sensor with high resolution
and a wide pressure range. The tactile sensor is composed of two layers
of microstructured flexible electrodes with high modulus and conductive
cotton fabric with low modulus. By optimizing the sensing films, the
fabricated tactile sensor shows a high sensitivity of 8.9 × 104 kPa–1 from 2 Pa to 250 kPa because of the
high structural compressibility and stress adaptation of the multilayered
composite films. Meanwhile, a fast response speed of 18 ms, an ultrahigh
resolution of 100 Pa over 100 kPa, and excellent durability over 20
000 loading/unloading cycles are demonstrated. Moreover, a 6 ×
6 tactile sensor array is fabricated and shows promising potential
application in electronic skin (e-skin). Therefore, employing multilayered
composite films for tactile sensors is a novel strategy to achieve
high-performance tactile perception in real-time health monitoring
and artificial intelligence.