Iontronic pressure sensor with high sensitivity over ultra-broad linear range enabled by laser-induced gradient micro-pyramids.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 37264026.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/s41467-023-38274-2 and PMC identifier 10235028.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
Despite the extensive developments of flexible capacitive pressure sensors, it is still elusive to simultaneously achieve excellent linearity over a broad pressure range, high sensitivity, and ultrahigh pressure resolution under large pressure preloads. Here, we present a programmable fabrication method for microstructures to integrate an ultrathin ionic layer. The resulting optimized sensor exhibits a sensitivity of 33.7 kPa<sup>-1</sup> over a linear range of 1700 kPa, a detection limit of 0.36 Pa, and a pressure resolution of 0.00725% under the pressure of 2000 kPa. Taken together with rapid response/recovery and excellent repeatability, the sensor is applied to subtle pulse detection, interactive robotic hand, and ultrahigh-resolution smart weight scale/chair. The proposed fabrication approaches and design toolkit from this work can also be leveraged to easily tune the pressure sensor performance for varying target applications and open up opportunities to create other iontronic sensors.