Liquid-metal-based sensors have great opportunities in various applications such as health monitoring, intelligent artificial skin, and soft robotics. However, current liquid-metal-based pressure sensors suffer from low pressure sensitivity, low signal reliability, and poor interconnection properties. This paper introduces a sensitivity-engineerable, reliable liquid-metal-based pressure sensor with a robust interconnection structure for multifunctional wearable applications. Herein, we investigated the effects of dimensions of rigid microbumps on the liquid-metal-based soft pressure sensor. Furthermore, two different types of rigid microbump structures such as embedded bump (E-bump) and anchored bump (A-bump) were designed and integrated with a liquid metal microchannel using multimaterial 3D printing technology, and it enabled the engineering of pressure sensitivity for different purposes. High sensitivity was achieved with E-bump structures, and a robust interconnection structure was realized with A-bump structures. Integration of E-bumps has increased the average sensitivity of the sensor to 0.0727 kPa^–1 (5.43 times higher), and A-bump integration has decreased the average sensitivity to 0.0004 Pa^–1 (91.65 times lower) in the range of 0–50 kPa, as compared to the pressure sensor without any microbumps. Therefore, the liquid metal interconnection was established with the A-bump structures for reliable pressure monitoring in practical wearable applications. These characteristics allow the demonstration of the multifunctional wearable electronic applications, including a fingertip pressure sensor glove for wireless multiposition wrist pulse monitoring as traditional East Asian medicine pulse diagnosis and a wireless human–machine interface device.

中文翻译：

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用于可穿戴应用的灵敏度可控的液态金属压力传感器

基于液态金属的传感器在健康监测、智能人造皮肤和软机器人等各种应用中都有很大的机会。然而，目前基于液态金属的压力传感器存在压力灵敏度低、信号可靠性低和互连性能差的问题。本文介绍了一种灵敏度可设计、可靠的液态金属压力传感器，该传感器具有适用于多功能可穿戴应用的稳健互连结构。在此，我们研究了刚性微凸块的尺寸对基于液态金属的软压力传感器的影响。此外，设计了两种不同类型的刚性微凸点结构，例如嵌入式凸点（E-bump）和锚定凸点（A-bump），并使用多材料 3D 打印技术与液态金属微通道集成，它使压力敏感工程能够用于不同的目的。E-bump 结构实现了高灵敏度，A-bump 结构实现了稳健的互连结构。E-bumps 的集成将传感器的平均灵敏度提高到 0.0727 kPa^–1（高 5.43 倍），与没有任何微凸点的压力传感器相比，A 凸点积分在 0-50 kPa 范围内将平均灵敏度降低到 0.0004 Pa ^–1（低 91.65 倍）。因此，液态金属互连与 A-bump 结构建立起来，以便在实际可穿戴应用中进行可靠的压力监测。这些特性允许展示多功能可穿戴电子应用，包括用于无线多位置手腕脉搏监测的指尖压力传感器手套作为传统东亚医学脉搏诊断和无线人机界面设备。