Highly sensitive, ultra-reliable flexible piezoelectret sensor for non-contact sitting motion tracking and physiological signal monitoring

Non-contact, cost-effective, multifunctional and robust monitoring platform without mechanical wearing burden is highly desired to enhance the immersive experience for users during the long-term health management. However, most reported intelligent electronics in human life need to be adhered conformably to key human body parts for accurate signal detection, giving rising to activity interference and wearing burden in the long-term usage. Herein, a highly sensitive flexible film pressure sensor with a folded structure configuration assembled from irradiation-cross linked polypropylene (IXPP) piezoelectret film featured with piezoelectric-like dynamic electrical output attributes are reported. Such simple folded structure incorporated specially into the device design endows the piezoelectric film sensor with merits such as enhanced sensitivity, high signal-to-noise ratio and excellent anti-interference capacity. Consequently, the sensor can achieve a linear pressure sensitivity of 92 pC/kPa over a wide pressure range of 0.6-62.4 kPa, a pressure resolution of 0.98%, and fast response/recovery time of 40 ms. The flexible piezoelectric film sensors are embedded into cushions and attached to the back of chairs for application demonstrations of non-contact sensing. Remarkably, low-frequency human motion and weak physiological signal detection are achieved in a non-contact mode by a highly sensitive piezoelectric sensing principle in an all-in-one configuration, simplifying the signal processing and monitoring system design. A vital sign monitoring system based on the intelligent cushion is further developed to unlock the health status of sedentary crowd. This is the first work that ever use commercially available irradiated cross-linked poly-propylene (IXPP) film to design pressure sensor and such sensors are successfully connected to the commercial C-life smart home ecosystem, presenting strong practicability and application prospects of such films in smart households and remote healthcare beyond the laboratory.

Automated summary

A highly sensitive flexible film pressure sensor with a folded structure assembled from irradiation-cross linked polypropylene (IXPP) piezoelectret film is reported. The sensor achieves enhanced sensitivity, high signal-to-noise ratio, and excellent anti-interference capacity. It can detect low-frequency human motion and weak physiological signals in a non-contact mode, simplifying the monitoring system design.