Intelligent Tactile Perception Revolution: Innovations in Flexible FET-Based Tactile Sensors for Next-Gen Human-Machine Interfaces

Abstract

Field-effect transistors (FETs) with controllable field-dependent carrier transport characteristics and unique signal amplification have provided an excellent platform for developing high-performance artificial sensors and intelligent-sensing interaction technologies. As the critical component of humanoid robotics, FET-based tactile sensors with diverse working mechanisms have been studied intensively and have demonstrated remarkable potential in intelligent human-machine interactions. Given that effective carrier-modulation capabilities of FETs significantly determine critical metrics of tactile sensing systems, this review systematically explores how diverse device, material, and processing innovations create different sensing characteristics, including tactile sensitivity, stretchability, and resolution, that thus underlie diverse strategies to engineer sensing behaviors toward specific applications of FET tactile sensors. We also examine the various strategies, including material-structure co-design, stretchability engineering, and high-resolution fabrication technologies, to engineer sensing behaviors in FET tactile sensors toward specific applications spanning wearable electronic skins, tactile-perceptive neuromorphic systems, and intelligent displays. Finally, we discuss the challenges regarding signal stability under dynamic deformation, response linearity, and saturation in high-pressure regimes, and scalable high-resolution integration, and outline promising solutions through the co-optimization of intrinsically stretchable materials, innovative device architectures, and advanced multi-scale fabrication processes.

Keywords: flexible field‐effect transistor; intelligent human–machine interface; neuromorphic system; performance optimization; tactile perception; tactile sensor.