Cut-and-Paste Transferrable Pressure Sensing Cartridge Films

Abstract

Flexible tactile sensors have been intensively studied for healthcare and electronic skin devices. Currently, a sensing material, electrode, and substrate are manufactured as one set by depositing the sensing material on the electrode. For this reason, when another electrode or substrate is used in the sensor or when different sensor characteristics are required, a new sensing material must be developed and the fabrication conditions should be changed. This study proposes a novel method of manufacturing a pressure sensing material like a cartridge film. The cartridge film is made by filling the holes of a stencil film (one MP in each hole) with conductive microparticles (MPs). Using the cartridge film, the sensing material can be cut-and-pasted on electrodes and transferred to other electrodes for reuse. This study analyzes the electrical responses of the sensors made of the cartridge film on the basis of the Hertzian contact theory, and also correlates the sensing performance of the sensors with the conductivity of the MPs and the degree of protrusion of the MPs from the stencil surface.