Inductive Pressure Sensors Using 3D-Printed Structures With Tunable Stiffness

Abstract

Modern 3-D printing techniques enable the rapid prototyping of complex mechanical structures. We leverage this capability to create customizable pressure sensors by combining soft and ferromagnetic filaments during the printing process. The resulting inductive sensors utilize a lattice structure based on a body-centered cubic unit cell, exhibiting tunable stiffness with Young's moduli ranging from 112 to 368 kPa and sensitivities between $-$0.17 and $-$0.11% kPa$^{-1}$. The sensors show minimal hysteresis and remain stable throughout 10 000 compression cycles. The versatility of this approach is further demonstrated through the fabrication of a fully printed inductive joystick.