Large-Area, Flexible SnS/Paper-Based Piezoresistive Pressure Sensor for Artificial Electronic Skin Application

This report demonstrates the fabrication of SnS/paper based low-cost and flexible pressure sensor, employing a facile solvothermal synthesis followed by vacuum filtration, for artificial electronic skin and touchpad applications. The fabricated pressure sensor displayed a high sensitivity of 3.18 kPa ^-1 and a response time ~300 msec. Inspired by the high value of sensitivity and an appreciable flexibility, a large-area pressure sensor array (3 × 3) was fabricated and integrated onto a human arm for demonstrating real-time applications. The fabricated sensor array was able to consistently detect and track random localized points of contact, the shape of an unknown object placed on top of it, and an index finger trajectory along the surface with high accuracy and precision. The fabricated device showed a negligible change in the performance over 500 bending cycles which indicates the highly robust nature of the device. Successful fabrication of such a cost-effective large-area pressure sensor array is a major step in flexible electronics, and holds immense potential in artificial electronic skin, security, personal healthcare applications.