Research progress of multifunctional flexible proximity sensors

As a non-contact sensor, flexible proximity sensor can sense the proximity of target objects to achieve position recognition, obstacle avoidance, human-computer interaction and other functions. It has important application prospects in environmental detection, human health monitoring, robot electronic skin and other fields. In recent decades, a variety of flexible multifunctional sensors based on proximity sensing have emerged, and how to improve and optimize their performance has become a research hotspot. This review summarizes the classification, performance index and research progress of flexible proximity sensors with different sensing types. In particular, the design principle, structure composition, material selection and manufacturing process of the current flexible proximity sensors are discussed in detail. Then, the performance of proximity sensing, realizable functions and application scenarios are compared among the reviewed research results. Finally, we discuss the challenges faced by flexible proximity sensors, and summarize and prospect the research direction of flexible proximity sensors. This paper aims to provide important reference value for further improving and optimizing the performance of the flexible proximity sensor and developing the next generation of multifunctional wearable devices.