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Rational Design of Ultrasensitive Pressure Sensors

by Tailoring Microscopic Features
Shuhua Peng, Philippe Blanloeuil, Shuying Wu, and Chun H. Wang*

measure mechanical forces by monitoring

Wearable sensors are increasingly used in a wide range of applications such the change of the separation between two
as tactile sensors and artificial skins for soft robotics, monitoring human parallel electrodes. The pressure sensi-
motions for wellbeing and sports performance, and pressure control of com- tivity of this type of capacitive sensors can
be increased by using dielectric materials
pression garments for wound healing. In this work, an ultrasensitive resis-
of low elastic modulus, which can induce
tive pressure sensor based on conductive polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) thin large strain ε under a given pressure.[2,8]
films with different microstructures is presented. These microscopic features By using dielectric materials whose dielec-
include micropyramids, micro-semispheres, and micro-semicylinders which tric properties change with strain, capaci-
are created by soft lithography replication of 3D printing templates. To enable tive sensors with higher sensitivity have
also been successfully developed as flex-
piezoresistivity, a thin layer of carbon nanofibers (CNFs) is spray-coated on
ible field-effect transistors.[9–11] However,
the textured PDMS film. The resistance changes of the three microstructure capacitive sensors are inherently vulner-
designs under compression loading show that the micro-semicylinder-based able to electric field interaction and fringe
sensor has the highest sensitivity of −3.6 kPa−1. Finite element modeling effect, which renders them unsuitable for
reveals that among the three designs, the micro-semicylinders show the specific electronics applications.[7]
largest change in contact area under the same pressure, consistent with the Piezoresistive sensors have simple
design, low manufacturing cost, and
experimental results that the largest resistance change under the same pres-
straightforward readout mechanism,[7]
sure. This sensor is capable of detecting pressure as low as 1.0 Pa. This 3D although environmental temperature
printing technology is a promising fabrication technique to design micro- fluctuation and hysteresis of sensing
structured piezoresistive layers, paving the way to tailor sensor performance response may influence the repeatability
by engineering their microstructures and to produce ultrasensitive pressure of their measurements.[12] The electrical
resistance of such a sensor can change
sensors at low cost.
with deformation due to either changes
in the material’s microstructure or the
contact resistance between two con-
1. Introduction tacting electrodes. In the former case, different piezoresistive
nanomaterials such as carbon nanotubes/nanofibers, gra-
Recent research into artificial skins which can sense a variety phene, and silver nanowires have been embedded into elastic
of human motions such as wrist pulse, breath and heart rates, matrix to form electrical percolation pathways.[13–17] Breakup
and joint movements is attracting increasing attention. Such and reforming of these electrical percolation pathways by
sensors with high flexibility and stretchability are also of great external forces change the electrical resistance.[18–23] Alterna-
significance for aged care, sports performance, soft robotics, tively, the piezoresistivity can be ascribed from deformation-
and wound healing.[1–6] These “skin-like” sensors can turn induced changes in contact resistance between two elec-
subtle mechanical information into electrical response. Among trodes or conducting interfaces.[24–26] This type of sensors is
them, capacitive and piezoresistive sensors are the most often usually capable of detecting minute deformation induced by
studied, due to their high-frequency width.[7] In case of capaci- human movements and they have been successfully applied
tive sensors, the capacitance (C) of a parallel plate capacitor is for healthcare monitoring.[25,27,28] Nevertheless, it is still chal-
described by C  = εA/d, where ε is the dielectric constant, and lenging to fabricate flexible pressure sensors which combine
A and d are the area and the distance between the two elec- high sensitivity and large operating pressure range with fast
trodes, respectively. Capacitive sensors are commonly used to response.[25,29]
One of the most-often used strategies to improve sensor
performance is to introduce fine microstructure features on
Dr. S. Peng, Dr. P. Blanloeuil, Dr. S. Wu, Prof. C. H. Wang the surfaces of contacting elastic electrodes.[11,25,30–33] For a
School of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering typical piezoresistive sensor whose sensitivity is determined
University of New South Wales by contact resistance change, the presence of surface textures
Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia
E-mail: chun.h.wang@unsw.edu.au
increases the contacting interface area between two electrodes,
comparing with flat, unstructured counterparts. When a cer-
DOI: 10.1002/admi.201800403 tain external force is applied, larger resistance change and

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Figure 1.  Comparison of multistep and one-step processes to prepare inverse microstructure templates: a) a multiple-step fabrication process by
photolithography: (1) silicon substrate, (2) silicon substrate coated with photoresistor, (3) patterning of photoresistor by UV light with photomask,
(4) isotropic etching of silicon substrate, (5) silicon substrate with inverse micropyramids by removal of photoresistor. b) A one-step fabrication pro-
cess by 3D printing.
hence higher sensitivity are achieved. Meanwhile, the effective
modulus decreases when the porous microstructured elasto-
mers are applied as electrodes, which dramatically improves
sensitivity at the low-pressure ranges. Micrometer-scaled pyra-
mids and semispheres are two most reported microstructures
for pressure sensors. As reported by Chen and co-workers in
2014, a piezoresistive pressure sensor with an ultrahigh sensi-
tivity of −5.53 kPa−1 within a pressure range from 0 to 100 Pa
was obtained when an anisotropic pyramid microstructured
graphene film was applied as one electrode.[30] By using two
layers of microdome/microsphere arrays, a high sensitivity
of −15.1 kPa−1 and a mini­­mum pressure detection of ≈0.2 Pa
were achieved.[34] However, the fabrication of these highly sen-
sitive pressure sensors generally involves a micro/nanofabri-
cation process. As illustrated in Figure 1a, in order to prepare
inverse silicon templates with micropyramids, a photolithog-
raphy process with multiple steps including spin coating, UV
irradiation, etching, and cleaning is required. This process
is not only time consuming and high cost but also inacces-
sible for low-cost consumer products due to the requirement
of clean-room manufacturing facility. Apart from these well-
defined microstructures by a complicated micro/nanofabri-
cation process, large area–patterned conducting elastic thin
films by simply copying the morphology of silk-based textiles
also demonstrated ultrahigh sensitivity for the detection of
minute forces with fast response time.[35] Although substan-
tial progress has been made by integration of various micro-
structures into pressure sensors, it is still unclear what effects
the geometrical features have on the sensor performance and
there is a lack of a simple and versatile method to ration-
ally optimize microstructures to achieve desirable sensor
performance.
Here, we report a rational design and fabrication
method for highly sensitive pressure sensors by manipu-
lating the microstructures of conductive and compress-
ible poly­ dimethylsiloxane (PDMS) electrodes. To simplify
the fabrication process, microstructured templates were
first made in one step (Figure 1b) by 3D additive printing,
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including pyramid, semisphere, and semicylinder. Upon
the application of external pressures, it is expected that
the deformation of these anisotropic microstructures with
nonuniform cross sections can induce large changes of
contact area compared with unstructured counterparts and
microstructures with uniform cross sections.[30] Finite ele-
ment modeling (FEM) was then used to simulate how dif-
ferent microstructures can induce the changes of effective
contact area and hence large contact resistance changes.
By replicating the microstructured templates, PDMS thin
films with microscopic contact features were obtained. A
thin layer of conductive carbon nanofibers (CNFs) was then
spray-coated onto these microstructured PDMS’s thin films
to impart piezoresistive capability. Finally, new pressure sen-
sors were made by assembling these PDMS conductive thin
films with a conductive electrode of indium tin oxide (ITO)–
coated flexible poly(ethyleneterephthalate) (PET) film. The
resistance changes for sensors with various microsturctures
were investigated and compared experimentally. The sensor
performance is highly dependent on topographic feature
of different microstructures, which was confirmed by FEM
simulation. The semicylinder micro­structure was identified
as a new geometry to achieve the best sensor performance
in terms of sensitivity comparing with pyramid and semi-
sphere microstructures. As proof of concept, the potential
application of such sensors for human motion detection was
demonstrated.
2. Results and Discussion
Comparing to the micro/nanofabrication process that involve
multiple steps to prepare inverse silicon templates as shown
in Figure 1a,[30,31] the 3D printing method shown in Figure 1b
offers a single-step process, thus overcoming high cost and
miti­gating the strict clean-room conditions. In addition, the
ability of 3D printing to precisely adjust structure parameters
such as the angle of side wall of pyramids gives more flexibility
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Figure 2.  Fabrication and characterization of microstructured PDMS thin films by replicating 3D-printed polymeric templates: a) CAD models for 3D
printing of polymeric templates including pyramids, semispheres, and semicylinders. b) Fabrication of conductive microstructured PDMS thin films
by replicating polymeric templates and spray coating of CNFs. c) Top-view optical microscope images of microstructured PDMS thin films coated with
CNFs. d) Corresponding side-view optical microscope images. e) SEM images of pyramid coated with CNFs.

to control the microstructures of PDMS thin films and hence
the sensitivity of assembled pressure sensors.
Three microstructured templates including pyramid, semi-
sphere, and semicylinder were designed and fabricated by
3D printing. The schematic illustrations of the three printed
polymer templates are given in Figure 2a. After printing, a pre-
cursor mixture of PDMS elastomer and curing agent was casted
onto the printed templates, and free-standing PDMS thin films
were obtained by peeling off the cured PDMS (Figure 2b). Sub-
sequently, a thin layer of CNFs was uniformly deposited onto
the microstructured PDMS, resulting in dark-colored PDMS
films. The corresponding optical and electron microscopy
images of the three microstructured PDMS thin films coated
with CNFs are shown in Figure 2c–e. Regular and uniform
microstructures of the identical feature size on the PDMS thin
film can be clearly seen from Figure 2c,d for three different
microstructures. A zoomed-in scanning electron microscopy
(SEM) image of micropyramid in Figure 2e indicates that the
as-deposited CNFs are uniformly distributed on the PDMS
substrate.
Figure 3a–c shows the Von Mises stress field of pressure
distribution (Pa) for the three microstructure features with
an applied pressure of P  = 300 Pa. It can be seen that for the
same applied load, the three contactors experience different
stress levels due to their different geometries, with the differ-
ence between the semicylinder and the pyramid being more
than one order of magnitude. The contact area between a
microscopic contactor and the flat electrode as a function of
the applied pressure is summarized in Figure 3d. In the pres-
sure range of 0–2000 Pa, the contact area generally increases
with the pressure for all the three microstructures. Higher
slopes are observed at low pressure, which indicates greater
sensitivity under low pressure. The stress distribution in the
contactor is nonuniform for all the three microstructures and
is concentrated near the contacting tips due to the smaller con-
tact area, which results in higher mechanical deformations and
rapid changes of contact area. However, as the applied pressure
further increases, deformation of the microstructures tends
to saturate, and additional pressure only induces a less rapid
change in contact area due to a larger cross-sectional area of
the compressing structure. The compression sensitivity of the
microstructures decreases with pressure. It is of significant
interest to note that, compared with the other two microstruc-
tures (pyramid and semisphere), semicylinder exhibited more

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Figure 3.  FEM analysis of different microstructures under pressure. a–c) Von Mises stress field for one single microstructure unit of a) pyramid,
b) semicylinder, and semisphere c) under a pressure of 300 Pa. d) Contact area of a sensor cell as a function of pressure. e) Sketch of electrical current
pathway through a unit microstructure of semicylinder under pressure.
pronounced change of contact area under the same pressure
condition both at the low and high pressures. As illustrated
in Figure 3e, the contract area between the conductive PDMS
thin films and ITO electrode increases with the applied load,
causing the total resistance to decrease.
A typical assembly of pressure sensor with semicylinder
microstructure is illustrated in Figure 4a. The pressure sensor
consists of two halves placed face to face: one part is a thin
conductive PDMS film with microstructured features while
the other part is a flat conductive ITO–PET film. Applying
an external pressure would cause the microscopic features of
PDMS to deform, causing the contact area between the two
conducting surfaces to increase, which in turn reduces the
electrical resistance. The geometry of the contacting features
plays an important role in their deformation responses and,
thus, the electrical behavior under external forces. To charac-
terize the effect of the microstructure geometries on the sensor
sensitivity, changes of the sensor output resistance (ΔR/R0)
were measured as a function of the applied pressure, where
R0 is the initial total resistance without loading and ΔR is the
total resistance change upon loading. Taking the semicylinder
microstructure as an example, the output resistance change as
a function of the applied pressure is shown in Figure 4b. It can
be clearly seen that the change of resistance (ΔR/R0) induced
by external pressure increased with pressure. When the pres-
sure was released, the semicylinder structures recovered due
to the elastic property of PDMS, resulting in complete recovery
of the electrical resistance. The response time of the pressure
sensor to detect the application and removal of pressure load
was estimated to be in the range of 20–50 ms for all the micro-
structure types (Figure S1, Supporting Information). The other
two microstructures, semisphere and pyramid, also exhibited
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similar electromechanical behavior, and the changes of resist-
ance as a function of applied pressure for three microstructures
are summarized in Figure 4c.
The pressure response curves of pressure sensors with
different microstructures shown in Figure 4c can be gener-
ally divided into two regions: high-sensitivity at low-pressure
values (0–200 Pa) and a low sensitivity at pressures above
200 Pa. The observation of a distinct difference in sensitivity
between two pressure ranges can be explained by the corre-
sponding change of contact area. As discussed in the above
FEM analysis (Figure 3), for the three microstructures, ani-
sotropic morphological features, and nonuniform stress dis-
tribution resulted in larger change of contact area and hence
higher sensitivity of resistance change at the low pressure
range. As the contact area change tends to saturate at high
pressures, the sensitivity of the sensors decreased accord-
ingly. Sensors with semicylinder microstructure exhibited the
highest sensitivity of −3.6 kPa−1, which is comparable to most
pressure sensors decorated with smaller microstructures by
the micro/nanofabrication process.[25,30,33,34] The sensitivity
of pressure sensors based on 3D printing in this work even
outperforms these made from printed organic transistors
with 3D self-organized organic semiconductor microstruc-
tures (1.07 kPa−1),[36] ultrathin gold nanowires (1.14 kPa−1),[27]
and silk-molded microstructured e-skin (1.8 kPa−1).[35] A
table (Table S1) has been added in the Supporting Informa-
tion to compare sensing performance of different pressure
sensors. As a comparison, sensors with unstructured flat
PDMS as the top electrode showed a much lower sensitivity
(−0.046 kPa−1) due to very small change of contact area under
stress. The sensitivities of the other two sensors with semi-
sphere and pyramid microstructures are −1.5 and −1.0 kPa−1
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Figure 4. Fabrication and characterization of pressure sensors
with different microstructures. a) Sketch of a pressure sensor by
placing conductive microstructured PDMS thin film onto ITO elec-
trode. b) Resistance change of the pressure sensor with semicylinder
microstructure with different pressure loadings. c) Plots of resistance
change as a function of applied pressure for different microstructures
(from top to bottom: squares, flat surface; triangles, pyramid; half solid
circles, semisphere; solid circles, semicylinder).
respectively, which are lower than that of semicylinder micro-
structure. The results of resistance changes pertinent to dif-
ferent microstructures were consistent with the analysis of
contact area changes obtained by the FEM analysis shown in
Figure 3d. It should be noted that the sensing range for all the
three microstrucrues with the same feature size of 1000 µm
by 3D printing is almost identical, around 200 Pa. This range
is greater than the sensing range of 100 Pa of those made by
Chen and co-workers using photolithography (their feature
size was 4.5 µm).[30]
The durability of a pressure sensor was investigated by
applying a cyclic loading and unloading of 500 Pa peak pres-
sure. As shown in Figure 5, the pressure sensor with the semi-
cylinder microstructure displayed a steady response for up to
the 10 000 cycles, with the relative resistance change (ΔR/R0)
cycling between ≈0 and ≈− 0.69, with very little drift. A statis-
tical analysis of the peak values of the relative resistance change
at the maximum pressure reveals that the mean value is −0.69
with a standard deviation of 0.02. Very little change can be
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seen in the SEM images shown in Figure 5a before and after
durability study, indicating a strong adhesion between the
PDMS substrate and the conductive coating of CNFs. The
signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of the resistance change during the
10 000 cycles is 33.9 at a pressure of 500 Pa. Figure 5b,c shows
two magnified tests with 10 cycles of the resistance changes
during the 10 000 cycles of repetitive loading and unloading
of 500 Pa peak pressure. The relative change in resistance
remained about −0.7 and then return to 0 immediately when
the external pressure was removed, which indicates very stable
and durable sensor performance.
The new microstructured sensors are capable of moni-
toring very subtle pressure changes. As demonstrated in
Figure 6a,b, the sensor with the semicylinder microstructure
can detect pressure as low as about 2 Pa, induced by a rice
grain weighing 20 mg. The signal of relative resistance change
is about −0.1 while the noise level is about 0.024. The SNR
of detecting a rice grain is about 4.2. Since the signal is pro-
portional to the applied pressure while the noise remains the
same, the mini­mum pressure that this sensor can detect is
around 0.96 Pa using the standard 6 dB drop technique (signal
amplitude is twice the noise or SNR = 2). Meanwhile, a very
fast response time of 30–50 ms upon loading and unloading of
a small pressure of 2 Pa makes the sensor comparable to that
of human skin,[37] which opens potential opportunities to apply
them for electronic skin and health monitoring applications.
Figure 6c,d demonstrates that the new sensors are capable
of directly detecting physiological signs such as wrist pulse,
which provides significant information about health condition
of human beings. Figure 6c shows a measured pulse pressure
waveform by tightly mounting the sensor onto a human wrist
with a resting heart rate of 70 b.p.m. As shown in Figure 6d,
the enlarged pulse signal is composed of two characteristic
peaks of peripheral artery waveforms, which contain important
biomedical and physiological information such as arterial stiff-
ness, coronary artery disease, and myocardial infraction. Peaks
P1 and P2 denote the sum of the forward travelling wave and
reflected wave (from the hand), and the reflected wave from
the lower body subtracted by the end-diastolic pressure, respec-
tively.[38] The radial artery augmentation index (AIr) and ΔTDVP,
defined as P2/P1 and the time difference between the P1 and P2
peaks, respectively, are strongly related to arterial stiffness.[38]
The measured average values of AIr and ΔTDVP were 0.54 and
0.23 s, respectively, which are consistent with the data perti-
nent to the subject person’s age of early thirties, as reported by
Nichols.[38,39]
This resistive pressure sensor can be integrated into a multi­
sensor array to collect spatially varying pressure distribution,
which is important for artificial electronic skin application. As
an example, a proof-of-concept resistive pressure sensor array
of 25 pressure sensors with semicylinder microstructures was
fabricated. The interdigital electrodes were made by aluminum
foil strips. As shown in Figure 7a, three different weights were
placed onto the surface of the sensor array. By measuring the
resistance changes of individual sensor in the sensor array,
the positions and values of these weights can be identified
by the resistance change map (Figure 7b). This demonstrates
the potential for applying our sensor networks in human–
electronics interfaces and e-skin.
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(a) 3. Conclusion
0.0
A new method based on a simple 3D
-0.2 printing technology to fabricate highly sen-
sitive pressures sensors has been developed
∆R/R0

-0.4 in this work. Conductive PDMS thin films

with different microstructures including
-0.6 pyramid, semisphere, and semicylinder have
been designed and fabricated for ultrasensi-
-0.8 tive pressure sensors. As compared to the
0 2000 4000 6000 8000 10000 complex and tedious micro/nanofabrication
Cycles method, the well-defined template micro-
(b) 0.0 (c) 0.0 structures in this work have been created
by using a simple one-step 3D printing pro-
cess. FEM analysis suggests that, for all three
∆R/R0

-0.3
∆R/R0

-0.3 microstructures, the contact area between

the microstructured thin films and a flat
-0.6 -0.6 electrode increases with the applied pres-
sure. Semicylinder microstructure exhibits
the largest changes of contact area under
1772 1774 1776 1778 1780 8522 8524 8526 8528 8530 the same pressure. The electromechanical
Cycles Cycles properties of the newly developed sensors
have been experimentally characterized.
Figure 5. Durability test of the pressure sensor by cyclic loading and unloading of 500 Pa Pressure sensor with the highest sensitivity
pressure. a) Electrical resistance change upon 10 000 times of loading and unloading of
500 Pa pressure. Insets are SEM images of CNFs coating before (left image) and after (right
of −3.6 kPa−1 has been obtained when semi-
image) durability study. Scale bar: 2 µm. b) Magnified durability tests from 1770 to 1780 cycles. cylinder microstructured PDMS thin film is
(c) Magnified durability tests from 8520 to 8530 cycles. used, which is in good agreement with the
FEM results. The experimental results reveal
that the new flexible sensor can reliably
detect pressures as low as 1.0 Pa, similar to the reported sen-
sitivity of human skins. It has also been demonstrated that the
sensors are capable of detecting human wrist pulse and can be
readily integrated into a sensor array to map the spatial distri-
bution of nonuniform pressure field. This study has provided a
new route for designing and manufacturing advanced pressure
sensors by rationally manipulating the microstructures of the
contacting surfaces.

Figure 6.  a) Small pressures can be detected by the semicylinder micro-
structured pressure sensor. b) The curve shows the resistance change
with the loading and unloading of a rice grain (20 mg) from the sensor
with an area of 1 cm2, corresponding to a pressure of about 2 Pa. c) Meas-
ured pulse pressure waveform of a human subject with a resting heart
rate of 70 b.p.m. over a 10 s period. d) Magnified electrical resistance
signal clearly representing pulse pressure (P1) and late systolic augmen-
tation (P2).
4. Experimental Section
Preparation of Conductive PDMS Thin Films with Different
Microstructures: Polymer templates with arrays of inverse
microstructures including pyramids, semispheres, and semicylinders
were designed and prepared by 3D printing (ProJet 3500 HDMax).
Their feature sizes in terms of base length of pyramids, diameter of
semispheres, and diameter of semicylinders were 1 mm. After printing,
the templates were cleaned by ethanol and isopropanol, respectively,
and then dried by compressed air. In order to facilitate demolding,
the templates were coated with a hydrophobic layer of 1H,1H,2H,2H-
perfluorodecyltrichlorosilane (PFDTS, Sigma) by chemical vapor
deposition (CVD) after treating the surface of printed templates with
O2 plasma for 10 min.
Liquid mixtures of PDMS precursors (Sylgard 184, Dow Corning)
including elastomer and its cross-linker (10:1 w/w) were casted onto
the templates and then put in an oven for 3 h at 65 °C after degassing.
The cured PDMS thin films were then peeled off from polymer
templates.
CNFs (Pyrograf-III, grade PR-24-XT-HHT, Applied Sciences Inc.) were
dispersed in isopropanol (1 mg mL−1) with poly(4-vinylpyridine) (P4VP,
Mn  = 10 000, Sigma, 1 wt% based on CNFs) as the dispersing agent.
Probe sonication was applied to the mixture for 30 min. Using a spray

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Figure 7.  a) Photograph of a large-area pressure sensor with 5 × 5 pixels (scale bar, 1 cm) was applied progressively with a linear ramp.
with three weights laying on the surface of pixel-pressure sensor. b) Reconstructed map with
columns labeled with the piece identities and with their heights corresponding to the resist-
ance changes.
gun (Blackridge air brush kit with a needle diameter of 0.3 mm under
the pressure of 15–20 PSI), the dispersed CNFs’ solution was applied
to the surface of the cured PDMS thin films (≈0.5 mm thickness) by
spray coating. It is worth noting that PDMS thin films were treated
with O2 plasma for 10 min before the spray coating to promote strong
adhesion. The PDMS thin films with the conductive CNF coating were
then baked in an oven at 90 °C for 2 h to further improve the adhesion.
The quantity of the sprayed CNFs was controlled by the volume of the
applied CNFs’ suspension (0.2 mL cm−2) to ensure that the surface
resistance of the resulting conductive films with the size of 1 cm ×
1 cm is of the order of 100 kΩ. For spherical and pyramid shapes, the
row- and column-pitch are 1500 µm, while the column spacing for the
cylindrical shape is 1500 µm. A sketch has been added in Figure S2 of
the Supporting Information to illustrate the pattern sizes for different
microstructures.
Fabrication and Characterization of Pressure Sensors: To assemble
the piezoresistive sensors, the conductive microstructured PDMS thin
films were placed face to face onto an electrode made of flexible PET
(ITO-PET) thin film coated with indium tin oxide (ITO). Silver paste
was applied to connect conductive PDMS thin films and ITO electrodes
to copper wires. The sensing performance of different sensors was
investigated by measuring resistance changes with applied pressure;
different weights were put over an area of 1 cm2. To evenly distribute the Conflict of Interest
applied pressure, a light wood chip (≈120 mg) was placed between the
weights and the sensor.
The durability study of the sensors was carried out by using an Instron
3369 tensile test machine under displacement control. The repeated
loading and unloading of certain weights were applied to the sensors.
Wrist pulse monitoring was performed by tightly mounting the sensors
onto human wrist by polyimide tape. A 5 × 5 sensor array was fabricated
by sandwiching 25 single sensors between aluminum strip electrodes.
The SNR was calculated by SNR = avg(ΔR/R0)/σ, where avg(ΔR/R0) is
the average value of the maximum resistance change in each cycle, and
σ is the standard deviation of the baseline. [11]
Finite Element Modeling: The elucidate the effect of microstructure
feature on the sensitivity of different sensors, the compression of a
single microstructure unit was investigated with an FEM analysis using
Abaqus Explicit. As the pressure sensors have a periodic structure with
a 1.5 mm spacing, a square unit cell containing a single microstructure
feature was modeled. Under a given pressure P, the resulting
compression force applied to a microstructure unit cell is thus F = −PA
where A  = 1.5 × 1.5 mm2 is the area of a microstructure unit. Three
microstructure geometries, a half-sphere, a half cylinder and a pyramid,
had identical dimensions. The PDMS was modeled as a homogeneous
isotropic elastic material with a density ρ = 965 kg m−3, Young’s modulus
E = 750 kPa, and Poisson’s ratio ν = 0.49.
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The microscopic contact feature was
sandwiched between two discrete rigid surfaces
with zero initial compression. The contact between
the microscopic feature and the flat electrode was
modeled using surface-to-surface contact laws
between a slave and a master surface. The contact
laws ensure the nonpenetration of the surfaces
involved. The electrode surface was clamped
(zero displacements), and the PDMS+CNF sensor
was free to move along the z-director while
all other degrees of freedom were restrained.
The compressive force F resulting from the
pressure applied on the unit cell was imposed
along z-direction. Quasistatic simulations were
performed for various pressure levels between
10 and 2000 Pa where the corresponding force F
The Abaqus explicit solver was used, where
geometrical nonlinearity was considered in order
to account for potential large deformation, and
automatic time stepping was selected. Quadratic
elements provide a smoother element deformation
and thus more accurate evaluation of the contact area. The finite
element (FE) meshes were locally refined around the contacting tip to
give a more accurate contact area evaluation. Convergence analysis of
the FE model was carried out for the three microstructure geometries in
order to choose an optimal element size.
Supporting Information
Supporting Information is available from the Wiley Online Library or
from the author.
Acknowledgements
S.W. would like to acknowledge the financial support from Australian
Research Council (ARC) via Discovery Early Career Researcher Award
(DE170100284).
The authors declare no conflict of interest.
Keywords
3D printing, finite element modeling, piezoresistive, pressure sensors
Received: March 8, 2018
Revised: April 28, 2018
Published online: June 11, 2018
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