Electronic Skin from High-Throughput Fabrication of Intrinsically Stretchable Lead Zirconate Titanate Elastomer
Yiming Liu,
Huanxi Zheng,
Ling Zhao,
Shiyuan Liu,
Kuanming Yao,
Dengfeng Li,
Chunki Yiu,
Shenghan Gao,
Raudel Avila,
Pakpong Chirarattananon,
Lingqian Chang,
Zuankai Wang,
Xian Huang,
Zhaoqian Xie,
Zhengbao Yang,
Xinge Yu
Affiliations
Yiming Liu
Department of Biomedical Engineering, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong 999077, China
Huanxi Zheng
Department of Mechanical Engineering, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong 999077, China
Ling Zhao
Department of Biomedical Engineering, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong 999077, China
Shiyuan Liu
Department of Mechanical Engineering, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong 999077, China
Kuanming Yao
Department of Biomedical Engineering, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong 999077, China
Dengfeng Li
Department of Biomedical Engineering, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong 999077, China
Chunki Yiu
Department of Biomedical Engineering, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong 999077, China
Shenghan Gao
Department of Biomedical Engineering, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300000, China
Raudel Avila
Department of Mechanical Engineering, McCormick School of Engineering, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL 60208, USA
Pakpong Chirarattananon
Department of Biomedical Engineering, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong 999077, China
Lingqian Chang
School of Biology Science and Medical Engineering, Beihang University, Beijing 100191, China
Zuankai Wang
Department of Mechanical Engineering, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong 999077, China
Xian Huang
Department of Biomedical Engineering, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300000, China
Zhaoqian Xie
State Key Laboratory of Structural Analysis for Industrial Equipment, Department of Engineering Mechanics, International Research Center for Computational Mechanics, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian 116024, China
Zhengbao Yang
Department of Mechanical Engineering, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong 999077, China
Xinge Yu
Department of Biomedical Engineering, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong 999077, China
Electronic skin made of thin, soft, stretchable devices that can mimic the human skin and reconstruct the tactile sensation and perception offers great opportunities for prosthesis sensing, robotics controlling, and human-machine interfaces. Advanced materials and mechanics engineering of thin film devices has proven to be an efficient route to enable and enhance flexibility and stretchability of various electronic skins; however, the density of devices is still low owing to the limitation in existing fabrication techniques. Here, we report a high-throughput one-step process to fabricate large tactile sensing arrays with a sensor density of 25 sensors/cm2 for electronic skin, where the sensors are based on intrinsically stretchable piezoelectric lead zirconate titanate (PZT) elastomer. The PZT elastomer sensor arrays with great uniformity and passive-driven manner enable high-resolution tactile sensing, simplify the data acquisition process, and lower the manufacturing cost. The high-throughput fabrication process provides a general platform for integrating intrinsically stretchable materials into large area, high device density soft electronics for the next-generation electronic skin.
