Scalable Manufacturing of Large-Area Pressure Sensor Array for Sitting Posture Recognition in Real Time
Lu Zheng, Xuemin Hou, Manzhang Xu, Yabao Yang, Jiuwei Gao, Lei Luo, Qixuan Zhu, Weiwei Li, Xuewen Wang
Abstract
High Resolution Image Download MS PowerPoint Slide Pressure sensors are considered the key technology for potential applications in real-time health monitoring, artificial electronic skins, and human–machine interfaces. Despite the significant progress in developing novel sensitive materials and constructing unique sensor structures, it remains challenging to fabricate large-area pressure sensor arrays due to the involvement of complex procedures including photolithography, laser writing, or coating. Herein, a scalable manufacturing approach for the realization of pressure sensor arrays with substantially enlarged sensitive areas is proposed using a versatile screen-printing technique. A compensation mechanism is introduced into the printing process to ensure the precise alignment of conductive electrodes, insulation layers, and sensitive microstructures with an alignment error of less than 4 μm. The fully screen-printed sensors exhibit excellent collective sensing performance, such as a reasonable pressure sensitivity of −2.2 kPa –1, a fast response time of 40 ms, and superior durability over 3000 consecutive pressures. Additionally, an integrated 16 × 32 pressure sensor array with a sensing area of 190 × 380 mm 2 is demonstrated to precisely recognize the sitting postures and the body weights, showing great potential in continuous and real-time health status monitoring.