Displacement sensors that can be worn on the body and that can detect movements in real-time and turn them into electrical signals are currently being actively researched. However, due to low tensile properties and difficult manufacturing procedures, research on tensile-capable displacement sensors is severely constrained.
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When a displacement sensor with worry sensitivity and tensile properties is created, it can be attached to a human body part with large movements, like joints or fingers, and used in a variety of applications, like augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR).
A piezoelectric strain sensor with high sensitivity and high stretchability has been created by a research team under the direction of Sung-Hoon Ahn, professor of mechanical engineering at Seoul National University, using kirigami design cutting.
The kirigami structure was used in this study to test the performance of a stretchable piezoelectric displacement sensor made from a film-type piezoelectric material.
According to the kirigami pattern, different sensing traits were demonstrated, and higher sensitivity and tensile properties were demonstrated in comparison to previous studies. The designed sensor was used to create wireless haptic gloves that made use of VR technology, and these could be used to play the piano.
The developed wearable displacement sensor is a sensor with high sensitivity and tensile properties only by laser cutting PVDF, a polymer film with piezoelectric performance. Not only for the virtual piano we presented, it could be applied in various fields such as healthcare and sports equipment.
Sung-Hoon Ahn, Study Corresponding Author and Professor, Mechanical Engineering, Seoul National University
Journal Reference:
Kim, Y.-G., et al. (2022) Piezoelectric strain sensor with high sensitivity and high stretchability based on kirigami design cutting. npj Flexible Electronics. doi.org/10.1038/s41528-022-00186-4.