Capacitive Pressure Sensors Utilizing a Conductive Human Fingerprint Microstructure

Abstract

Pressure based tactile sensing is an essential part of how humans interact with their environment. Taking inspiration from a structure naturally optimized to sense force, the human fingertip, this work presents a fingerprint design carbon-black and ecoflex based capacitive pressure sensor. The finagrprint sensor shows a sensitivity improved from 2.94×10−4Pa=1 to 1.48×10−3Pa−1 when compared to an unstructured reference device. The sensor is furthermore compared to simulations and evaluated under receptive loading cycles.