Wide-Range Flexible Capacitive Pressure Sensors Based on Dielectrics with Various Porosity

Wide-range flexible pressure sensors are in difficulty in research while in demand in application. In this paper, a wide-range capacitive flexible pressure sensor is developed with the foaming agent ammonium bicarbonate (NH₄HCO₃). By controlling the concentration of NH₄HCO₃ doped in the polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) and repeating the curing process, pressure-sensitive dielectrics with various porosity are fabricated to expand the detection range of the capacitive pressure sensor. The shape and the size of each dielectric is defined by the 3D printed mold. To improve the dielectric property of the dielectric, a 1% weight ratio of multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) are doped into PDMS liquid. Besides that, a 5% weight ratio of MWCNTs is dispersed into deionized water and then coated on the electrodes to improve the contact state between copper electrodes and the dielectric. The laminated dielectric layer and two electrodes are assembled and tested. In order to verify the effectiveness of this design, some reference devices are prepared, such as sensors based on the dielectric with uniform porosity and a sensor with common copper electrodes. According to the testing results of these sensors, it can be seen that the sensor based on the dielectric with various porosity has higher sensitivity and a wider pressure detection range, which can detect the pressure range from 0 kPa to 1200 kPa and is extended to 300 kPa compared with the dielectric with uniform porosity. Finally, the sensor is applied to the fingerprint, finger joint, and knee bending test. The results show that the sensor has the potential to be applied to human motion detection.