Smart Electropalatography Thin-Film Flixible Pressure Sensor Array for Linguistic and Medical Applications

Abstract

A thin-film flexible pressure sensor array based smart electropalatography (EPG) device for linguistic and medical applications is presented. This sensor array is designed to monitor the location, pressure, and duration of tongue contact during speech. A 4 x 4 parallel plate capacitive sensing array consisting of silver nanowire (AgNW) electrodes and a polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) dielectric layer with a thickness of 350 m is designed, fabricated, and characterized. Top and bottom active shield ground layers are added to mitigate interference use during sensing. This is one of the first flexible pseudo-palates with a total thickness of less than 500 m, which would significantly reduce the interruption of airflow during speech thus increasing test accuracy, and enhance the comfort of a wearer compared with a commercially available rigid acrylic based pseudo-palate with a thickness of 1 ~ 2 mm.