Integrated Flexible, Waterproof, Transparent, and Self-Powered Tactile Sensing Panel

Abstract

Portable and wearable electronic devices are human-centered devices; therefore, many unique attributes are highly desirable, such as flexibility, being self-powered, and waterproof. These properties render devices excellent adaptivity in harsh operation environments. In this work, we report an integrated triboelectric tactile sensor array with flexible, transparent, self-powered, and waterproof features. Each tactile sensor is a surface nano/microtexture enhanced triboelectric nanogenerator. The sensor array can serve as a touch panel for electronic devices. Owing to a unique design of a built-in triboelectric contact pair and an electrical shielding layer, an individual pixel of the fabricated tactile sensor array can generate an open circuit voltage up to 1.613 V and a short circuit current density of 47.308 mA/m(2) under 612.5 kPa. The tactile sensors can produce stable voltage signals regardless of the materials of the touching objects, and work stably both in ambient and aqueous environments. To examine the touch panel function of a sensor array, a matrix of 10 × 10 individually addressable 4 mm × 4 mm triboelectric sensors has been integrated into a thin, transparent, and flexible film, and the 2-D touch mapping has been successfully demonstrated. The unique triboelectric tactile sensor array reported here is robust and highly versatile, and it may find broad applications in display, wearable electronics, artificial skins, Internet of Things (IoT), etc.

Keywords: self-powered device; tactile sensor; touch panel; triboelectric effect; waterproof.