Hesam Mahmoudinezhad Masoumeh, Anderson Iain, Rosset Samuel
Auckland Bioengineering Institute, University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand.
Soft Robot. 2023 Aug;10(4):687-700. doi: 10.1089/soro.2022.0111. Epub 2023 Mar 14.
We present a compression sensor based on a strain-sensitive carbon black-silicone composite cast on top of a printed circuit board with interdigitated electrodes. This results in a very sensitive and soft capacitive compression sensor not requiring a structured dielectric or compliant electrodes. We show how the optimal loading of carbon black to maximize the sensitivity depends on the type of carbon black and the stiffness of the silicone matrix. The optimal quantity of carbon black leads to a high sensitivity of 252% for an input force of 10 N (this corresponds to an input pressure of 17 kPa), without stiffening the silicone matrix or increasing the viscoelastic losses noticeably. The fabrication process of the sensors is much simpler than that of other soft capacitive sensors, and unlike carbon black-silicone resistive sensors, these capacitive sensors do not exhibit time-dependent impedance creep. They can be made thick without affecting their base capacitance or sensitivity, leading to compliant and conformable sensing interfaces suitable for a variety of applications, such as robotic tactile sensors.
我们展示了一种基于应变敏感炭黑 - 硅酮复合材料的压缩传感器，该复合材料浇铸在带有叉指电极的印刷电路板顶部。这产生了一种非常灵敏且柔软的电容式压缩传感器，不需要结构化电介质或柔性电极。我们展示了使灵敏度最大化的炭黑最佳负载量如何取决于炭黑类型和硅酮基体的刚度。对于10 N的输入力（这对应于17 kPa的输入压力），炭黑的最佳用量导致252%的高灵敏度，同时不会使硅酮基体变硬或显著增加粘弹性损耗。该传感器的制造过程比其他软电容式传感器简单得多，并且与炭黑 - 硅酮电阻式传感器不同，这些电容式传感器不会表现出随时间变化的阻抗蠕变。它们可以做得很厚而不影响其基本电容或灵敏度，从而产生适用于各种应用（如机器人触觉传感器）的柔性和贴合式传感界面。
