Touchpoint-Tailored Ultrasensitive Piezoresistive Pressure Sensors with a Broad Dynamic Response Range and Low Detection Limit

Chen, Ming; Li, Kun; Cheng, Guanming; He, Ke; Li, Weiwei; Zhang, Daoshu; Liu, Weimin; Feng, Yang; Wei, Lei; Li, Wenjie; Zhong, Guo‐Hua; Yang, Chunlei

doi:10.1021/acsami.8b20284

Cited by 107 publications

(75 citation statements)

References 36 publications

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“…To break the bottleneck, flexible pressure sensors composed of surface microstructures and conductive layers were proposed, in which the signals were typically generated from the variation of the contact resistance . The transformed working mechanism greatly promoted the sensitivity up to 10–100 kPa −1 (especially in the low pressure range) and decreased the limit of detection (LOD) to 1 Pa or less . Nonetheless, for plenty of microstructure‐based sensors, the response ranges with high sensitivity were limited to several kPa since the contact areas of the microstructures were easily saturated under small pressure.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Flexible Pressure Sensors with Wide Linearity Range and High Sensitivity Based on Selective Laser Sintering 3D Printing

Zhang

et al. 2019

Adv Materials Technologies

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applications in electronic skin (E-skin), human-machine interfaces, and healthcare monitoring. [1][2][3][4] Among the various types of sensors employing piezoresistive, [5][6][7] capacitive, [8][9][10] piezoelectric, [11][12][13] and triboelectric [14][15][16] sensing mechanisms, the piezoresistive mechanisms have been intensively investigated due to their high sensitivity, simple structures, easy fabrication, and convenient data processing, resulting in significantly promising commercialization prospects. [17][18][19] To achieve success in practical applications, excellent performances in the pressure range related to human activity and scalable, low-cost, and reproducible manufacturing processes are decidedly required. [20][21][22][23] Piezoresistive pressure sensors based on composite materials consisting of elastic matrixes and conductive fillers have been comprehensively investigated and adopted in commercial applications due to their good performance and compatibility with scalable printing technology. [3,21,24] However, the sensors based on bulk resistance changes generally exhibited poor sensitivity in low pressure ranges, which limited their applications in E-skin or wearable devices. To break the bottleneck, flexible pressure sensors composed of surface microstructures and conductive layers were proposed, in which the signals were typically generated from the variation of the contact resistance. [25,26] The transformed working mechanism greatly promoted the sensitivity up to 10-100 kPa −1 (especially in the low pressure range) and decreased the limit of detection (LOD) to 1 Pa or less. [26][27][28] Nonetheless, for plenty of microstructure-based sensors, the response ranges with high sensitivity were limited to several kPa since the contact areas of the microstructures were easily saturated under small pressure. First, the narrow range would limit their applications in the medium-pressure range [29,30] (10-100 kPa), which is closely related to daily human activity. Second, the background stress that is generated from nontest objects can easily disable a sensor with a narrow sensing range. [31,32] In addition to the sensing range, a linear relationship between the pressure and the electrical signals was typically desired to facilitate data processing. [21,33] Considering that the sensitivity was usually different in the whole range, the available range would be further narrowed down, which set To achieve practical applications of flexible pressure sensors, good performance and scalable manufacturing processes are both desired. Here, flexible pressure sensors with excellent performance are fabricated via selective laser sintering (SLS). Having benefitted from the irregular microstructures generated in the powder sintering process, the sensors exhibit high sensitivity of 55 kPa −1 in a wide linearity range of 100 kPa, and they maintain decent sensitivity (>10 kPa −1 ) over a high-pressure range (100-400 kPa), which is among the best results for flexible pressure sensors. The working mechanism of the sensor...

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Flexible Pressure Sensors with Wide Linearity Range and High Sensitivity Based on Selective Laser Sintering 3D Printing

Zhang

et al. 2019

Adv Materials Technologies

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“…[ 11–15 ] Among the different kinds of pressure sensors, piezoresistive pressure sensor demonstrates great application potential because of its fast response speed, simple structure, economical fabrication process and great stability. [ 16–20 ] Improvement of sensitivity of pressure sensors is critical for the high precision and ultrasensitive pressure detection, [ 21–25 ] which is however a challenging task because the key effect of device configuration on the sensitivity is always neglected.…”

Section: Figurementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Limit of detection (LOD) is the minimum pressure which a sensor can perceive and respond. [25,49,50] We placed a piece of feather on the sensor to produce an average pressure of 0.425 Pa (Figure 4a), and a clear output current was observed as a response. Response and recovery time are other two key parameters for sensors.…”

Section: Improvement Of Sensitivity Of Electrical Piezoresistive Sensmentioning

confidence: 99%

Synergistic Resistance Modulation toward Ultrahighly Sensitive Piezoresistive Pressure Sensors

Yuan

Wang

et al. 2020

Adv Materials Technologies

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In recent years, with the rapid development of prosthesis, [1,2] health monitoring, [3][4][5][6][7] and robot, [8][9][10] electronic skin has drawn huge research enthusiasm. Tactile sensation is one of the most significant functions of electronic skin, which mainly relies on pressure sensor to realize. [11][12][13][14][15] Among the different kinds of pressure sensors, piezoresistive pressure sensor demonstrates great application potential because of its fast response speed, simple structure, economical fabrication process and great stability. [16][17][18][19][20] Improvement of sensitivity of pressure sensors is critical for the high precision and ultrasensitive pressure detection, [21][22][23][24][25] which is however a challenging task because the key effect of device configuration on the sensitivity is always neglected.Until now, the commonly used strategy to improve sensitivity focuses on the development of different kinds of microstructure of active materials, but this strategy is still not effective enough to achieve ultrahigh sensitivity. [26][27][28] For example, Fang et al. replicated the lotus leaf surface onto the polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) substrate to produce a structured layer and then sprayed graphene films as active electrodes, [29] which yields a sensitivity of 1.2 kPa −1 . Jong-jin Park et al. reported a sensor with sensitivity of 10.32 kPa −1 by introducing a pyramidical electrode consisting of a conductive polymer (PEDOT:PSS) and an aqueous polyurethane dispersion (PUD) elastomer blend. [30] Bao et al. prepared a new piezoresistive sensor with sensitivity up to 41.9 kPa −1 by preparing interconnected polypyrrole (PPY) hollow sphere structure through a multiphase synthesis technique. [31] These researches have significantly advanced the development of piezoresistive sensors, but still could not achieve ultrahigh sensitivity to meet the requirement of high precision and ultrasensitive detection. This is because the surface microstructure of active materials is not the only key factor for the improvement of sensitivity.To overcome the current obstacle and get ultrathigh sensitivity, it would be necessary to understand the basic working principle of piezoresistive pressure sensor, and further get the feasible solution. The basic electrical characteristics of piezoresistive sensor is similar, and the total resistance (R total ) of the device consists of two parts: the body resistance (R b ) Improvement of sensitivity of electrical piezoresistive sensors is critical for high-precision and ultrasensitive detection, which mainly depends on the modulation ability of total resistance of sensor under applied pressure. However, in most of the reported sensor devices, the contact resistance and body resistance (the key parts of total resistance of sensor) generally cannot be modulated simultaneously, which results in the limited sensitivity. In this work, an ultrahighly sensitive piezoresistive pressure sensor with an exquisitely designed structure is demonstrated, providing an uncomparable advantage of ...

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“…Moreover, the novelty of 3D porous conductive structures increases the infiltration of conductive fillers into skeleton walls, and decreases the distance between cells upon external deformation or compressive strain. This normally results in variation of relative resistance [ 42 , 43 ]. The excellent viscoelastic features and the good porosity of the 3D porous conductive composites generate significantly stable resistance signals over a wide pressure range [ 44 , 45 ].…”

Section: Background Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

Facile Fabrication of 3D Porous Sponges Coated with Synergistic Carbon Black/Multiwalled Carbon Nanotubes for Tactile Sensing Applications

et al. 2020

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Recently, flexible tactile sensors based on three-dimensional (3D) porous conductive composites, endowed with high sensitivity, a wide sensing range, fast response, and the capability to detect low pressures, have aroused considerable attention. These sensors have been employed in different practical domain areas such as artificial skin, healthcare systems, and human–machine interaction. In this study, a facile, cost-efficient method is proposed for fabricating a highly sensitive piezoresistive tactile sensor based on a 3D porous dielectric layer. The proposed sensor is designed with a simple dip-coating homogeneous synergetic conductive network of carbon black (CB) and multi-walled carbon nanotube (MWCNTs) composite on polydimethysiloxane (PDMS) sponge skeletons. The unique combination of a 3D porous structure, with hybrid conductive networks of CB/MWCNTs displayed a superior elasticity, with outstanding electrical characterization under external compression. The piezoresistive tactile sensor exhibited a high sensitivity of (15 kPa−1), with a rapid response time (100 ms), the capability of detecting both large and small compressive strains, as well as excellent mechanical deformability and stability over 1000 cycles. Benefiting from a long-term stability, fast response, and low-detection limit, the piezoresistive sensor was successfully utilized in monitoring human physiological signals, including finger heart rate, pulses, knee bending, respiration, and finger grabbing motions during the process of picking up an object. Furthermore, a comprehensive performance of the sensor was carried out, and the sensor’s design fulfilled vital evaluation metrics, such as low-cost and simplicity in the fabrication process. Thus, 3D porous-based piezoresistive tactile sensors could rapidly promote the development of high-performance flexible sensors, and make them very attractive for an enormous range of potential applications in healthcare devices, wearable electronics, and intelligent robotic systems.

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Touchpoint-Tailored Ultrasensitive Piezoresistive Pressure Sensors with a Broad Dynamic Response Range and Low Detection Limit

Cited by 107 publications

References 36 publications

Flexible Pressure Sensors with Wide Linearity Range and High Sensitivity Based on Selective Laser Sintering 3D Printing

Flexible Pressure Sensors with Wide Linearity Range and High Sensitivity Based on Selective Laser Sintering 3D Printing

Synergistic Resistance Modulation toward Ultrahighly Sensitive Piezoresistive Pressure Sensors

Facile Fabrication of 3D Porous Sponges Coated with Synergistic Carbon Black/Multiwalled Carbon Nanotubes for Tactile Sensing Applications

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