Development Of A Skin-like Pressure Sensor Array For E-Skin Application

The development and application of electronic artificial skin (E-skin) that can detect the environment through touch is of profound interest for humanoid robots and prosthetic application. This dissertation focuses on developing a new e-skin for contact pressure measurement. The promising materials system, such as silver nanowires(AgNWs). PDMS, and conductive elastomers, as well as nanofabrication.3D printing, surface engineering technologies and finite element method are considered in the design and fabrication process of the e-skin. The major research and innovative results are as follows:(1) The performance of AgN Ws/PDMS-based interconnects and electrodes such as stretchability and work life were systematically studied, indicating that the AgNWs/PDMS-based interconnects and electrodes could be used to fabricate skin-like devices. The electrical contact properties between the AgNWs/PDMS-based electrodes and the piezoresistive materials were tested for the first time. The metal layer coated by e-beam evaporation or sputtering could decrease the contact resistance and improve the wear properties between the contact surfaces.(2) The strategies of flexibility and elasticity design for sensor array were studied. The AgNWs/PDMS-based interconnects and electrodes instead of metal were used to fabricate flexible pressure sensor arrays. The porous PDMS layer sandwiched between the AgNWs/PDMS electrodes made the sensor array elastic and could be stretched up to30%.(3) The key technical problems of e-skin development, such as skin-like design, reliability and scalability were discussed. The fabricated e-skin could be used to cover the3D static/dynamic surfaces to detect contact pressure. The possibility of our e-skin integrated with the colonoscope was discussed. The colonscope sleeved with the e-skin was used to detect pressure caused by looping and pressing under looped state.