Silk-Based Self Powered Pressure Sensor for Applications in Wearable Device

Abstract

In this work, we demonstrate the development of a flexible self-powered pressure sensor with silk-based substrate. Silk is the thinnest and toughest fiber that can be obtained from nature. Based on these noble properties, its applications for health-care, human-machine interface, and humanoid robotics are highly desired. The synthesized film with silk and poly (vinylidene fluoride-co-trifluoro ethylene) shows piezoelectric coefficient of 6.24pm/V with transmittance up to 88% within visible light range(400~700nm). The obtained sensor shows remarkable linearity with sensitivity of 70Pa <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">-1</sup> in wide range (~500kPa) and high durability over 10,000 times repeated loading/unloading cycles.