Design, fabrication and performance of flexible pressure sensors based on microstructures

With the rapid development of science and technology, electronic skin and flexible wearable devices have attracted wide attention because of their important applications in human motion, health monitoring, intelligent robots and other fields. The traditional pressure sensors based on noble metal or metal oxide semiconductor have high cost or poor flexibility, while the flexible pressure sensors based on microstructures have the advantages of high sensitivity, wide strain range, low cost, low power consumption and fast response, which play an important role in electronic skin and flexible wearable devices and have become one of the main research hotspots of materials and devices in flexible electronics. This review systematically summarizes the important progress made in the material selection, structural design, preparation methods and sensing performance of flexible pressure sensors based on different flexible substrate microstructures such as pyramid, microsphere, micro-column, bionic structure and fold and porous conductive polymer materials. Finally, the future development of flexible pressure sensors is prospected. © 2021, Editorial Office of Acta Materiae Compositae Sinica. All right reserved.