Biomimetic Contact Behavior Inspired Tactile Sensing Array with Programmable Microdomes Pattern by Scalable and Consistent Fabrication

Abstract

Abstract Flexible sensor arrays have attracted extensive attention in human‐computer interaction. However, realizing high‐performance sensor units with programmable properties, and expanding them to multi‐pixel flexible arrays to maintain high sensing consistency is still struggling. Inspired by the contact behavior of octopus antenna, this paper proposes a programmable multistage dome structure‐based flexible sensing array with robust sensing stability and high array consistency. The biomimetic multistage dome structure is pressurized to gradually contact the electrode to achieve high sensitivity and a large pressure range. By adjusting the arrangement of the multistage dome structure, the pressure range and sensitivity can be customized. More importantly, this biomimetic structure can be expanded to a multi‐pixel sensor array at the wafer level with high consistency through scalable and high‐precision imprinting technologies. In the imprinting process, the conductive layer is conformally embedded into the multistage dome structure to improve the stability (maintain stability over 22 000 cycles). In addition, the braced isolation structure is designed to effectively improve the anti‐crosstalk performance of the sensor array (crosstalk coefficient: 26.62 dB). Benefitting from the programmable structural design and high‐precision manufacturing process, the sensor array can be customized and is demonstrated to detect human musculation in medical rehabilitation applications.

Keywords

• embedded
• flexible sensing array
• multistage microstructure
• octopus‐inspired
• programmable