A novel capacitive pressure sensor based on micro-structured polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) dielectric layer was developed for wearable E-skin and touch sensing applications. The pressure sensor was fabricated on a flexible polyethylene terephthalate (PET) substrate, using PDMS and silver (Ag) as the dielectric and electrode layers, respectively. A set of PDMS films with pyramid shaped micro-structures were fabricated using a laser engraved acrylic mold. The electrodes (top and bottom) were fabricated by depositing Ag on PET films using additive screen-printing process. The pressure sensor was assembled by attaching the top and bottom Ag electrodes to the smooth side of pyramid shaped micro-structured PDMS (PM-PDMS) films. The top PM-PDMS was then placed on the bottom PM-PDMS. The capability of the fabricated pressure sensor was investigated by subjecting the sensor to pressures ranging from 0 to 10 kPa. A sensitivity of 0.221% Pa $^{\mathbf {-1}}$ , 0.033% Pa $^{\mathbf {-1}}$ and 0.011% Pa $^{\mathbf {-1}}$ along with a correlation coefficient of 0.9536, 0.9586 and 0.9826 was obtained for the pressure sensor in the pressure range of 0 Pa to 100 Pa, 100 Pa to 1000 Pa, and 1 kPa to 10 kPa, respectively. The pressure sensor also possesses a fast response time of 50 ms, low hysteresis of 0.7%, recovery time of 150 ms and excellent cycling stability over 1000 cycles. The results demonstrated the efficient detection of pressure generated from various activities such as hand gesture and carotid pulse measurement. The PM-PDMS based pressure sensor offers a simple and cost-effective approach to monitor pressure in E-skin applications.

中文翻译：

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用于电子皮肤应用的高灵敏度和柔性微型金字塔结构压力传感器的激光辅助制造

基于微结构聚二甲基硅氧烷 (PDMS) 介电层的新型电容式压力传感器被开发用于可穿戴电子皮肤和触摸传感应用。压力传感器是在柔性聚对苯二甲酸乙二醇酯 (PET) 基板上制造的，分别使用 PDMS 和银 (Ag) 作为介电层和电极层。使用激光雕刻的丙烯酸模具制造了一组具有金字塔形微结构的 PDMS 薄膜。电极（顶部和底部）是通过使用添加剂丝网印刷工艺在 PET 薄膜上沉积 Ag 来制造的。通过将顶部和底部 Ag 电极连接到金字塔形微结构 PDMS (PM-PDMS) 薄膜的光滑侧面来组装压力传感器。然后将顶部 PM-PDMS 放置在底部 PM-PDMS 上。通过使传感器承受 0 到 10 kPa 的压力来研究制造的压力传感器的能力。灵敏度为 0.221% Pa $^{\mathbf {-1}}$ , 0.033% 帕 $^{\mathbf {-1}}$ 和 0.011% 帕 $^{\mathbf {-1}}$ 压力传感器在 0 Pa 至 100 Pa、100 Pa 至 1000 Pa 和 1 kPa 至 10 kPa 压力范围内的相关系数分别为 0.9536、0.9586 和 0.9826。该压力传感器还具有 50 ms 的快速响应时间、0.7% 的低滞后、150 ms 的恢复时间和超过 1000 次循环的出色循环稳定性。结果证明了对各种活动（例如手势和颈动脉脉搏测量）产生的压力的有效检测。基于 PM-PDMS 的压力传感器提供了一种简单且经济高效的方法来监测电子皮肤应用中的压力。