Self‐Powered Noncontact Electronic Skin for Motion Sensing

Abstract

The advancement of electronic skin envisions novel multifunctional human machine interfaces. Although motion sensing by detecting contact locations is popular and widely used in state-of-the-art flexible electronics, noncontact localization exerts fascinations with unique interacting experiences. This paper presents a self-powered noncontact electronic skin capable of detecting the motion of a surface electrified object across the plane parallel to that of the electronic skin based on electrostatic induction and triboelectric effects. The displacement of the object is calculated under the system of polar coordinates, with a resolution of 1.5 mm in the lengthwise direction and 0.76° in the angular direction. It can serve as a human machine interface due to its ability to sense noncontact motions. An additional self-powered feature, enabled by its physical principles, solves the problem of power supply. This electronic skin consists of trilayers of polyethyleneterephthalate-indium tin oxide-polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) films, and microstructured PDMS as the electrified layer, which can be achieved through simplified, low cost, and scalable fabrication. Transparency, flexibility, and less number of electrodes enable such electronic skin to be easily integrated into portable electronic devices, such as laptops, smart phones, healthcare devices, etc.

All‐Fiber Structured Electronic Skin with High Elasticity and Breathability

“…For example, driving these wearable tactile sensors completely by traditional batteries has become increasingly impractical, [10] since batteries may cause health hazard owing to the possible electrolyte leaking or contamination. [11,12] Meanwhile, self-powered systems have tremendous prospects in the areas of remote and mobile sensors, portable personal electronics, and wireless health networks. [11,12] Meanwhile, self-powered systems have tremendous prospects in the areas of remote and mobile sensors, portable personal electronics, and wireless health networks.…”

Multifunctional Sensor Based on Translational‐Rotary Triboelectric Nanogenerator

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to the current multifunctional sensors. [20][21][22][23] Specifically, the force, [24] speed, [25,26] acceleration, [27,28] direction, [29] and angle [30] all can be measured by the TENG. [10] The energy harvesting technologies that can provide continuous power supply [11][12][13][14][15][16] and selfpowered sensors that can directly transfer the detect information into electrical signals even without power [7,17,18] are the idea approaches to meet the requirements.

Based on the triboelectric effect and the electrostatic induction, triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs) invented by Wang and co-workers [19] have a few remarkable advantages, such as flexibility, light weight, easy integration.

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Human–Machine Interfacing Enabled by Triboelectric Nanogenerators and Tribotronics

“…The body motion capture is another basic but vital function of the HMI, especially for realizing the hands‐free operations, which has practical applications requirements in the physical training, medical rehabilitation, as well as VR gaming and control. As an effective mechanical‐to‐electrical signal conversion approach, TENG could naturally and directly be utilized to implement the motion sensors . Nevertheless, to further realize HMI applications, the structures of TENGs have to be specifically and carefully designed to capture the body motion.…”

“…Among the various approaches toward this goal of HMIs, the triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) and tribotronics have emerged as promising alternatives in recent years. The TENG, based on the coupling of contact electrification and electrostatic induction, was invented by Wang and co‐workers .…”