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Updated: Aug 30, 2025
Fabrication of Flexible Image Sensor Based on Lateral NIPIN Phototransistors
Published on: June 23, 2018
Self-powered image array composed of touch-free sensors fabricated with semiconductor nanowires
Sangmoon Han1,2, Seoung-Ki Lee3, Jong-Woong Kim1
1Department of Electronic and Information Materials Engineering, Division of Advanced Materials Engineering, and Research Center of Advanced Materials Development, Jeonbuk National University, Jeonju 54896, South Korea. kjinsoo@jbnu.ac.kr.
Abstract:
We successfully develop a self-powered image array (IA) composed of 16 touch-free sensors (TFSs) fabricated with semiconductor InN nanowires (NWs) as a response medium. Without using a power supply, the InN-NW TFS can detect the position of a human hand 30 cm away from the device surface. It also distinguishes different materials such as polyimide, Al foil, printing paper, latex, and polyvinyl chloride in non-contact mode at a distance of 1 cm. The self-powered TFS-IA clearly distinguishes square-shaped transparent polydimethylsiloxane film attached to the back of a human hand positioned 5 cm from the device, indicating the possibility for detecting changes in the surface texture of human skin, such as skin burns or skin cancer. The performance of the self-powered TFS and TFS-IA is attributed to high electrostatic induction of InN NWs by external triboelectricity resulting from the simple movement of the target object, which differs markedly from conventional sensors designed to detect variations in the temperature or light essentially using a power supply.
