Design and investigation of iontronic flexible pressure sensor based on microstructure array

Flexible pressure sensors are widely used in fields such as healthcare, owing to their simple preparation method, abundant raw materials, and high sensitivity. To solve the problems of low sensitivity and high noise impact that arise with traditional capacitive pressure sensors, this paper proposes an electrical double layer microarray capacitive pressure sensor using silver nanowires (AgNW) and ionic liquids. AgNW/polyimide (PI) flexible electrodes and microarray-structured ionic liquids are utilized to obtain highly sensitive responses to changes in weak physiological signals. The microarray structure is a 20 × 20 quadrangular prism convex array. Experimental tests show that the sensor has high sensitivity (3.1202 kPa⁻¹, 0–800 kPa) and fast response/recovery times (100/100 ms). By flexibly attaching the sensor to the skin or a computer mouse, rapid and stable monitoring of micromovements such as facial muscles, vocalization, swallowing, finger joint activity, and mouse clicks can be achieved. The results obtained here are of value for the development of intelligent flexible electronics.