A metal-electrode-free, fully integrated, soft triboelectric sensor array for self-powered tactile sensing

The dramatic advances in flexible/wearable electronics have garnered great attention for touch sensors for practical applications in human health monitoring and human–machine interfaces.Self-powered triboelectric tactile sensors with high sensitivity,reduced crosstalk,and simple processing routes are highly desirable.Herein,we introduce a facile and low-cost fabrication approach for a metal-electrode free,fully integrated,flexible,and self-powered triboelectric tactile sensor array with 8-by-8 sensor units.Through the height difference between the sensor units and interconnect electrodes,the crosstalk derived from the electrodes has been successfully suppressed with no additional shielding layers.The tactile sensor array shows a remarkable sensitivity of 0.063VkPa^(–1) with a linear range from 5 to 50kPa,which covers a broad range of testing objects.Furthermore,due to the advanced mechanical design,the flexible sensor array exhibits great capability of pressure sensing even under a curved state.The voltage responses from the pattern mapping by finger touching demonstrate the uniformity of the sensor array.Finally,real-time tactile sensing associated with light-emitting diode(LED)array lighting demonstrates the potential application of the sensor array in position tracking,self-powered touch screens,human–machine interfaces and many others.