Chinese Journal of Analytical Chemistry 50.

1 (2022) 20–23

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Chinese Journal of Analytical Chemistry

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/cjac

Flexible, conformal composite proximity sensor for detection of conductor

and insulator
Guo-Dong ZHAO, Lei ZHAO, Hai-Ting WANG, Zhan WEI, Yan-Hong TONG∗, Xiao-Li ZHAO,
Qing-Xin TANG∗, Yi-Chun LIU
Key Laboratory of UV-Emitting Materials and Technology, Ministry of Education, Northeast Normal University, Changchun 130024, China

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Keywords: With the recent progress in electronic skin, wearable medical devices and robotic systems, efforts have been
Proximity sensor devoted to capacitive proximity sensor and organic semiconductor proximity sensor. The former shows the prox-
Capacitive sensor imity perception ability towards the conductor, and the latter enables proximity detection of the electrically
Organic semiconductor sensor
charged objects. Here, by embedding rubrene organic semiconductor proximity sensor (insulator detector) and a
Wearable electronics
parallel plate capacitive proximity sensor (metal detector) on the polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) elastic substrate,
Flexible electronics
we merge two-type proximity sensors in a single platform to realize a flexible, conformal composite proximity
sensor, which enables good adherence onto the curved objects and detection of fingers, metal, and insulators,
showing the strong application potential in wearable electronics.

1. Introduction
The applications of electronic skin (e-skins) in medical engineering,
artificial intelligence and Internet of things, require the developments
of new-type flexible and conformal proximity sensors that enable adher-
ence on the curved objects and at the same time accurate detection of
the approaching objects [1–11]. Currently, two types of proximity sen-
sors have shown the promising potential in this field because of their
outstanding advantages in flexibility, simple preparation process, low
power consumption, and low cost [12–16]. One is the capacitive proxim-
ity sensor with the dielectric sandwiched between two electrodes [17–
21]. For example, Ahn et al. fabricated a wearable capacitive proximity
sensor on human palm by using 5-𝜇m PET as substrate and success-
fully detected the approaching metal sphere [12]. The sensing mecha-
nism of the capacitance proximity sensor is related to the disturbance
of the fringing electric field caused by the approaching conductive ob-
jects, making the detected objects limited in conductors [10,12]. The
other is the organic semiconductor-based proximity sensor. Its sensing
mechanism is related with the charges of the detected object, which
services as gate voltage to cause the current change of organic semi-
conductor [22,23]. This provides a feasible way to detect the insulators
including hair, paper, plastic sheet, etc, since these insulators are easily
unconsciously electrically charged. Until now, the flexible and confor-
mal proximity sensor is only reported by Ahn, and the detection of only
a metal sphere is shown. It is desirable to develop the new flexible, con-
formal proximity sensors that enable to extend the detected materials
for practical application in wearable electronics.
Here, we show a skin-like composite proximity sensor that integrates
the abilities of the capacitive sensor with organic semiconductor sen-
sors to detect diverse materials, by combining two types of sensors on
the same elastomer, which greatly expands the application range of the
proximity sensors, and makes our composite sensor highly promising
candidate applications such as smart prosthetics, humanoid robots and
human-machine interactions in the future.
2. Experimental details
The capacitive sensor and organic semiconductor sensor were fab-
ricated with the method as previously reported [22]. The composite
proximity sensor was fabricated by the lamination and peeling pro-
cesses as shown in Fig. 1(a). The separated two Au electrodes and the
polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) (1000 r/min, 20 s) were successively de-
posited on the octadecyltrichlorosilane (OTS) modified Si substrate as
the top electrodes. The Au electrode and the elastic PDMS were succes-
sively deposited on the other OTS modified Si substrate, peeled from the
substrate as the bottom electrode, and was laminated onto the top elec-
trodes. The whole electrode was peeled from OTS modified Si substrate
and flipped over, and then the rubrene crystal was placed on the top
electrodes. The resulting flexible composite sensor was also schemati-
cally shown in Fig. 1(a). The photographs of the sensor attached to the

∗
Corresponding authors.
E-mail addresses: tongyh@nenu.edu.cn (Y.-H. TONG), tangqx@nenu.edu.cn (Q.-X. TANG).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cjac.2021.10.004
Received 24 August 2021; Received in revised form 20 October 2021; Accepted 21 October 2021
Available online 28 October 2021
1872-2040/© 2021 Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, CAS.
G.-D. ZHAO, L. ZHAO, H.-T. WANG et al. Chinese Journal of Analytical Chemistry 50.1 (2022) 20–23

Fig. 1. Flexible, conformal composite proxim-

ity sensor composed of the capacitive sensor
and organic semiconductor sensor for achiev-
ing the proximity detection of diverse materi-
als. (a) Schematic illustration image and sens-
ing mechanisms of the composite proximity
sensor. (b) Optical photographs of the compos-
ite proximity sensor.

Fig. 2. Signal responses of two types of sen-

sors to the steel ruler, the rubber bar and
the glass bar. (a1, b1, c1) Photographs of the
three stimuli objects simultaneously approach-
ing two sensors. Changes in capacitance (a2,
b2, c2) of capacitive sensor and in current (a3,
b3, c3) of organic semiconductor sensor with
respect to the distance of the approaching three
objects. The scale bar is 1 cm.

prosthesis and the corresponding optical microscope photographs are sor changes obviously but the capacitance of the capacitive sensor re-
shown in Fig. 1(b), which indicate the tight contact of the conformal mains unchanged, confirming the detection capability of the organic
composite sensor onto the curved surface. semiconductor proximity sensor towards the charged objects. When the
charged rubber bar/the charged glass bar approach the organic semi-
conductor proximity sensor, the upper surface of organic semiconductor
3. Results and discussion
will induce the opposite charges which will increase/decrease the car-
rier concentration resulting in the increased/decreased current. Based
The composite sensor was fabricated by integrating the capacitive
on the different detection advantages of two types of sensors, we fabri-
sensor and organic semiconductor sensor into one single sensor, as
cated the composite sensor to realize the detection of the diverse mate-
shown in Fig. 1(a). The aim is to make such a single sensor combine
rials for the broaden application range, as shown in Fig. 1.
the advantages of the capacitive sensor with organic semiconductor sen-
In previous studies, human finger is one commonly used stimuli to
sor. As shown in Fig. 2, a capacitive sensor and an organic semiconduc-
test the sensing capabilities of the proximity sensor. It has been reported
tor sensor were placed together to respectively detect the steel ruler, a
that both capacitive proximity sensor and organic semiconductor prox-
charged rubber bar, and a charged glass bar. When the steel ruler ap-
imity sensor enable detection of the approaching human finger accord-
proaches the two sensors, the capacitance of the capacitive sensor obvi-
ing to different sensing mechanism (insets of Fig. 3). Human finger is
ously decreases while the current of the organic semiconductor sensor
a conductor that can cause the disturbance of the fringing electric field
remains unchanged, confirming the detection capability of the capaci-
and hence the change of the measured capacitance. At the same time, the
tive proximity sensor towards the steel ruler. When the steel ruler ap-
finger is unintentionally charged. Its approaching behaves as a modu-
proaches the capacitive proximity sensor, the fringe electric field lines
lated gate electrode, resulting in the current change of the two-terminal
will be shunted by the steel ruler, causing the decrease of the total capac-
organic semiconductor device. As shown in Fig. 3, when the finger ap-
itance. When the triboelectrification rubber and glass bars respectively
proaches the composite sensor, both capacitance and current signals
approach the two sensors, the current of the organic semiconductor sen-

21
G.-D. ZHAO, L. ZHAO, H.-T. WANG et al. Chinese Journal of Analytical Chemistry 50.1 (2022) 20–23

Fig. 3. Signal responses of two types of sen-

sors to approaching finger. (a) Photograph of a
finger simultaneously approaching capacitive-
type and organic semiconductor-type sensor.
Electrical signal change to the approaching fin-
ger in (b) capacitive proximity sensor and (c)
organic semiconductor proximity sensor. Insets
in (b and c) are sensing mechanisms of these
two types of sensors. (d) Normalized change in
electrical signal versus the distance of the ap-
proaching finger. The scale bar is 1 cm.

Fig. 4. (a–c) Photographs of the measurement processes with the finger, the gold ring, and the plastic ring, and changes in capacitance and current with the three
objects approaching and removing. (d–f) Photographs of the measurement processes on an artificial hand with the finger, the gold ring, and the plastic ring, and
changes in capacitance and current with the three objects approaching and removing. The scale bar is 1 cm.
22
G.-D. ZHAO, L. ZHAO, H.-T. WANG et al.
change, suggesting the approaching object is a charged conductor. With
the decreasing distance between the finger and the composite sensor,
both the capacitance value and the current value decrease. In our ex-
periments, the capacitance signal shows the detection ability from 0.5
to 6 cm, and the current signal shows the detection ability from 0.5 to
10 cm.
To show the potential of the flexible composite sensor in wearable
electronics, the sensor is adhered onto an artificial hand, and a finger,
a gold ring and a plastic ring are respectively used as the stimuli for
proximity detection. The detection was carried out by simultaneously
measuring capacitance and current signals. As shown in Fig. 4, the ca-
pacitance value presents good response towards the finger and the gold
ring and invisible response towards the plastic ring, while the current
value presents good response towards the finger and the plastic ring and
invisible response towards the gold ring. These results not only confirm
the broaden detection materials of our composite sensor compared with
the capacitive sensor or organic semiconductor sensors, but also pro-
vide a possible to difference the conductor and insulator. If both the
capacitance and current values change, the approaching object should
be a charged conductor, for example, human finger (Fig. 4a and d). If
only the capacitance value changes, the approaching object should be a
conductor, for example, metal ring (Fig. 4b and 4e). If only the current
value changes, the approaching object should be a charged insulator,
for example, plastic ring (Fig. 4c and f).
4. Conclusions
Proximity sensing plays an important role in safety precaution,
human-machine interfaces, and health monitoring systems. Our work
indicated that the capacitive proximity sensor can only detect the prox-
imity of finger and metal. The organic semiconductor proximity sensor
only responded to the proximity of the finger and charged insulator.
This exceedingly limits the application of proximity sensors in real life.
We have achieved proximity detection of the finger, charged insula-
tor, and metal conductor by combining two-type proximity sensors in
a single device named composite sensor. The flexible conformal com-
posite sensor can detect the proximity of diverse materials such as the
finger, charged insulator, and metal conductor, which makes it highly
promising candidate applications such as human-machine interactions,
humanoid robots, and smart prosthetics in the future.
Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors declare no competing financial interest.
Acknowledgments
This work is supported by National Natural Science Foundation of
China (51973024), 111 Project (B13013).
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