Flexible Force Sensor with Micro-Pyramid Arrays Based on 3D Printing

In this paper, a 3D printed flexible force sensor is proposed. The force sensor consists of the top and bottom layers fabricated by a digital light processing (DLP) based 3D printer with polyurethane acrylate (PUA). Micro-pyramid arrays are designed on the surface of the bottom layer. The surfaces of both top and bottom layers are then coated with poly (3, 4-ethylenedioxythiophene) polystyrene sulfonate (PEDOT: PSS) film as the stretchable electrode. The sensing principle bases on the changes in resistance between the top and bottom layers since the contact area increase due to the deformation of the Micro-pyramid arrays with applied force. Finally the force sensor is characterized within the force range from 0 to 392mN. This work demonstrates that 3D printing technology has a good application prospect in sensor manufacturing.