Washable, Inkjet-Printed Flexible Tactile Sensor on Fabric with Temperature Tolerance

This paper reports an inkjet-printed fabric-based tactile sensor with high sensitivity and a wide pressure-sensing range. Inkjet printing allows a conformal formation of various carbon nanotube (CNT) patterns on the fabric structure without wasting the material. The woven structure of the fabric induces the increased contact area as the applied pressure increases, thereby achieving high sensitivity of the sensor over 1 kPa ⁻¹ with the range of 0 to 600 kPa. Furthermore, the tolerance of the sensor toward the temperature and water is confirmed with various operating environments.