Flexible Pressure Sensors

Researchers in Professor Zhenan Bao’s group at Stanford University have created a thin-film pressure sensor device structure so sensitive it can detect the slightest touch. This ultrasensitive, highly flexible electronic sensor can detect something as light as a small fly of 20mg landing on it. The underlying architecture of the new sensor is a thin film of rubber molded into a grid of tiny pyramids and placed between two electrodes. The researchers have already produced a sheet of sensors that exhibited a great deal of flexibility, indicating the technology should perform well when wrapped around a surface mimicking the curvature of the human hand or the sharp angles of a robotic arm. This is a simple, cost effective technology for producing large arrays of tiny, high-resolution pixels; potential applications include electronic skin, prosthetics, biomedical applications, automobile industry, robotics, and touch sensors for displays and toys. A closely-related technology is Stanford Docket No. S10-252, “Three-dimensional Touch Technology for Intuitive Human-Computer Interaction,” invented by Zhenan Bao and Benjamin Tee.

Researchers can measure the pressure from a butterfly registered by the sensors.

NPR "All Tech Considered" Feature
"Just Like Human Skin, This Plastic Sheet Can Sense And Heal", April 11, 2016