The effects of contact area on pressure sensing of ionic polymer metal composite sensor with a soft substrate

Abstract

Ionic polymer metal composite (IPMC) has been extensively studied as a pressure sensor. Nevertheless, few works have focused on the size effects of external loads on IPMC pressure sensing. Herein, we investigated the effects of contact area on pressure sensing of an IPMC sensor. By placing a soft substrate behind the IPMC, we enlarged the strain when IPMC was pressed and revealed that the signal generation of IPMC sensor depends on the compression and bending coupling effects, which even change from negative to positive (from -0.184 mV to 0.102 mV) with the increase of the radius of the contact area (from 1 mm to 4 mm). The experimental results were qualitatively proved by the theoretical compression model and finite element simulation. It may provide a new and effective way to simplify the measurement of the contact area.

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