Crack-inducing Strain Sensor Array using Inkjet-Printed Silver Thin Film for Underplate and Off-centered Force Sensing Applications

The change in resistance upon bending in metal films as thick as 1 mm used for underpanel force touch applications is limited by the low sensitivity, thus requiring high-performance readout circuitry. In this paper, we report inkjet-printed silver thin films having crack-inducing underlayers, which further increases the sensitivity of their resistance changes under deformation. This allows for detecting weak vertical forces even through the plates (force-receiving layer), such as 0.4 or 1.2 mm thick polyethylene terephthalate or 0.4 mm thick glass. The underplate sensors will detect a force level as low as 10 gf, which corresponds to the amount of force required for fingerprint recognition. Furthermore, such highly sensitive strain sensors can potentially solve the inaccuracy issue of wearable devices, which can occur when misplaced sensors detect relatively weak biosignals, such as heart rate and blood pressure. The sensor detects the accurate pulse patterns of the wrist artery even though it is off-centered from the artery by 6 mm or larger. The crack-based strain sensor and its usage as a hidden underplate force sensing device will create various wearable and user- machine interface applications.

Automated summary

In this paper, inkjet-printed silver thin films with crack-inducing underlayers were reported to enhance the sensitivity of resistance changes under deformation. The highly sensitive strain sensors can detect weak vertical forces even through thick plates, such as polyethylene terephthalate or glass. These sensors can potentially solve the accuracy issue of wearable devices by accurately detecting biosignals such as heart rate and blood pressure even when off-centered from the artery.