Development of Thin-Film, Flexible, Polymer-Based Pressure Sensors for Tactile Applications

Thin film pressure sensors have now been found to be used in multiple applications for the enhancement of human lifestyles in the form of wearables. Thus, sensors made of low-cost materials in an easy-to-manufacture procedure are in high demand. In this project, a sensor has been designed for the measurement of unidirectional pressure that has a maximum sensitivity of 3.5865kP a−1 that can be obtained from 424.67-849.35Pa. The sensor can detect pressures from 0 to 148.64 kPa over varying sensitivities. The pressure sensor has been manufactured using Kapton tape converted to Laser-induced graphene (LIG) using a 40 W sealed CO2 laser at a power setting of 30%, a speed setting of 70%, and a PPI of 300. The electrodes used for this are copper tape, which is readily available in the market. After manufacturing the sensor, it is tested using the resistance feature of a multimeter. The output of the multimeter is then used to calculate the sensitivity of the sensor. The sensor is then compared to the different sensors that were used as references during the progress of this project to highlight its improvements.