Meter-scale pressure sensor array with woven conductive-polymer-coated fibers

We report on mete-scale large area pressure sensor which utilize sensor fabric consisting of conductive-polymer-coated fibers. In the previous study, the touch sensors with conductive-coated fibers are reported by our group, but the previous sensor can not detect pressure. To achieve mete-scale pressure array, the sensing electrode of conductive-polymer-coated fibers is improved. Firstly, the conductivity of the fiber is improved to several kΩ because poor conductivity leads to the large noise. Secondly, the area of the sensing electrode is enlarged through increase of the number of fibers because small area of the capacitive type of sensors leads to small amount of output signal. The fabricated sensor fabric was examined on the detection of pressure, resulting more than 1 pF capacitive change under 6 N/cm2. Therefore, our sensor will lead to meter-scale pressure sensor array and input devices for various electronic devices.