Journal article
Mutual capacitance of liquid conductors in deformable tactile sensing arrays
Applied physics letters, v 108(1), p13502
04 Jan 2016
Featured in Collection : UN Sustainable Development Goals @ Drexel
Abstract
Advances in highly deformable electronics are needed in order to enable emerging categories of soft computing devices ranging from wearable electronics, to medical devices, and soft robotic components. The combination of highly elastic substrates with intrinsically stretchable conductors holds the promise of enabling electronic sensors that can conform to curved objects, reconfigurable displays, or soft biological tissues, including the skin. Here, we contribute sensing principles for tactile (mechanical image) sensors based on very low modulus polymer substrates with embedded liquid metal microfluidic arrays. The sensors are fabricated using a single-step casting method that utilizes fine nylon filaments to produce arrays of cylindrical channels on two layers. The liquid metal (gallium indium alloy) conductors that fill these channels readily adopt the shape of the embedding membrane, yielding levels of deformability greater than 400%, due to the use of soft polymer substrates. We modeled the sensor performance using electrostatic theory and continuum mechanics, yielding excellent agreement with experiments. Using a matrix-addressed capacitance measurement technique, we are able to resolve strain distributions with millimeter resolution over areas of several square centimeters. (C) 2016 AIP Publishing LLC.
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Details
- Title
- Mutual capacitance of liquid conductors in deformable tactile sensing arrays
- Creators
- Bin Li - Drexel UniversityAdam K. Fontecchio - Drexel UniversityYon Visell - California NanoSystems Institute
- Publication Details
- Applied physics letters, v 108(1), p13502
- Publisher
- Amer Inst Physics
- Number of pages
- 3
- Grant note
- Medical Simulation grant from Independence Blue Cross CNS-1446752 / NSF; National Science Foundation (NSF)
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Language
- English
- Academic Unit
- Electrical and Computer Engineering
- Web of Science ID
- WOS:000374313000061
- Scopus ID
- 2-s2.0-84954139493
- Other Identifier
- 991020532113804721
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- Collaboration types
- Domestic collaboration
- Web of Science research areas
- Physics, Applied