REVIEW
Pressure Sensors
Emerging Technologies of Flexible Pressure Sensors:
Materials, Modeling, Devices, and Manufacturing
Yan Huang, Xiangyu Fan, Shih-Chi Chen,* and Ni Zhao*
As an important branch of wearable electronics, flexible pressure sensors
have attracted extensive research owing to their wide range of applications,
such as human–machine interfaces and health monitoring. To fulfill the
requirements for different applications, new material design and device fabri-
cation strategies have been developed in order to manipulate the mechanical
and electrical properties and enhance device performance. In this paper, the
important progresses in flexible pressure sensor development over recent
years are selectively reviewed from a material and application perspective.
First, an overview of the fundamental working mechanism and the system-
atic design approach is presented. Particularly, how the theoretical modeling
has been used as an auxiliary tool to achieve better sensing performance is
discussed. A number of applications, including human–machine interfaces,
electronic skin and health monitoring, and certain application-driven func-
tions, e.g., pressure distribution visualization and direction-sensitive force
detection, are highlighted. Lastly, various advanced manufacturing methods
used for realizing large-scale fabrication are introduced.
1. Introduction
With the rapid development of modern society, new and disrup-
tive technologies such as the Internet of Things (IoT) and wear-
able medical devices have emerged in recent years, improving
the well-being and quality of life. Flexible electronics plays an
important role in the aforementioned applications in the form
of electronic skin, human–machine interaction interface, physi-
ological signal monitoring, etc.[1–4] Compared with the conven-
tional silicon-based electronics, flexible electronics have great
adaptability to different kinds of substrates, be it soft or rigid,
flat or curved. This unique advantage has attracted extensive
research efforts on flexible electronics, and various applications
have been developed, such as light-emitting diodes (LEDs), bat-
teries, antennas, and sensors.[5–8]
Y. Huang, Prof. N. Zhao
Department of Electronic Engineering
The Chinese University of Hong Kong
Hong Kong
E-mail: nzhao@ee.cuhk.edu.hk
X. Y. Fan, Prof. S.-C. Chen
Department of Mechanical and Automation Engineering
The Chinese University of Hong Kong
Hong Kong
E-mail: scchen@mae.cuhk.edu.hk
The ORCID identification number(s) for the author(s) of this article
can be found under https://doi.org/10.1002/adfm.201808509.
DOI: 10.1002/adfm.201808509
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Pressure sensors that convert pressure
input into electrical signals are an essential
member in the flexible electronics family
and have been developed into a multi­
discipline area, combining material sciences,
device and system engineering, and signal
processing, including the newly emerged
artificial intelligence technologies.[9–11] There
have been a number of reviews lately to
summarize the progress of flexible pressure
sensors. Some focus on flexible electronics
as a whole[2,3,12–15] while others are dedicated
to the emerging materials (e.g., graphene-
based) for pressure sensors.[9,11,16,17] To bring
the flexible pressure sensor technology from
laboratories to the real world, we note that
some critical elements, such as system
design, theoretical modeling, and manufac-
turing, are missing in the previous reviews.
Also, how the emerging additive manufac-
turing technologies can impact the field of
flexible electronics has not been discussed.
This review is devised to provide a holistic view of the devel-
opment of flexible pressure sensors combining both scientific
and engineering progresses in this area. We first introduce
fundamental assessment principles of pressure sensors. Fol-
lowing that, latest material developments of high-performance
pressure sensors are categorized according to their sensing
mechanisms, including piezoresistive, piezocapacitive, superca-
pacitive, piezoelectric, and triboelectric. As a powerful approach
to supplement the understanding of the sensor performance,
theoretical modeling is discussed and the common methodolo-
gies are introduced. Prevailing applications of flexible pressure
sensors, including health care, electronic skin, and human–
machine interface, are presented, along with two new auxil-
iary functions, namely pressure distribution visualization and
detection of stimulus directions. Lastly, we review the emerging
advanced manufacturing technologies for large-scale and on-
demand fabrication of flexible pressure sensors. The structure
of this review and the relations between each part are shown in
Figure 1.
2. Figures of Merit of Pressure Sensors
Pressure sensors can be evaluated through several criteria,
including sensitivity, working range, hysteresis, response and
recovery time, and stability. The knowledge of basic parameters
is critical for the selection of pressure sensors as every
application scenario has its unique requirement on sensor
characteristics.
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2.1. Sensitivity and Working Range
Sensitivity (S) is a value to measure the ability of sensors to con-
vert pressure into electrical signals. The definition of sensitivity
is expressed as S = (ΔE)/(ΔP × E0), where ΔE is the variation of
electrical signals (e.g., current, voltage, or capacitance), ΔP is the
pressure variation (i.e., working range), and E0 denotes the orig-
inal electrical signal when no pressure is loaded. The transfer
curve is usually plotted with pressure input on the x-axis
and electrical signal output on the y-axis to describe the
sensor performance. A linear relationship between the output
and the input pressure is desired for the convenience of data
processing. Devices based on different sensing mechanisms
require different types of materials and device structures to
achieve high sensitivity. This will be illustrated later.
2.2. Hysteresis and Response Time
Hysteresis of a pressure sensor is the phenomenon in which
the sensor cannot restore its electrical characteristics when the
load is removed and it is related to the viscoelasticity of the
active materials and the property of the electrode/active material
contact. Hysteresis is often defined by the maximum difference
between the output signals obtained at the same pressure in
one loading-unloading cycle divided by the full-scale output.[18]
The response time is defined as the time needed to achieve
90% of the stable output and reflects the speed in which a
sensor can respond to step input. It is also related to the viscoe-
lastic property of the active material and the contact conditions
between the material and the electrode. Certain surface struc-
tures and porous bulk have been shown to reduce the negative
effect of the viscoelastic properties, both the response time[19–21]
and hysteresis.[22–26] A systematic investigation on this phenom-
enon is still missing.
2.3. Stability and Durability
Maintaining a stable and reliable input-output relation under
long-time or multicycle use is another important requirement
for pressure sensors. Continuous loading-unloading testing
cycles are needed in order to examine the stability of a sensor.
There is no specific number of cycles set as a standard for
the stability testing, but commonly more than 5000 cycles are
adopted in most of the reports of flexible pressure sensors. The
current/capacitance/voltage output is recorded before and after
the loading cycles to track the variations of sensor response.
In terms of device lifetime, since the output degradation often
originates from the irreversible collapse of the active material,
some reports included supplementary characterizations of the
morphology of the active material to better investigate the deg-
radation mechanisms.[19]
3. Materials Development
In this section, we report the recent material developments of
pressure sensors. In general, flexible substrates, electrodes, and
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Shih-Chi Chen received his
B.S. degree in mechanical
engineering from the National
Tsing Hua University, Taiwan,
in 1999. He received his
S.M. and Ph.D. degrees in
mechanical engineering from
the Massachusetts Institute
of Technology, in 2003
and 2007, respectively. In
2007–2009, he was a research
fellow at the Wellman Center
for Photomedicine, Harvard Medical School. Dr. Chen
is presently an associate professor in the Department of
Mechanical and Automation Engineering at the Chinese
University of Hong Kong. His current research interests
include biomedical optics, precision engineering, and
nanomanufacturing.
Ni Zhao is currently an
associate professor in the
Department of Electronic
Engineering at the Chinese
University of Hong Kong
(CUHK). She received her
bachelor’s and master’s
degrees in materials sci-
ence and engineering from
Tsinghua University and
McMaster University, respec-
tively, and her Ph.D. degree
in physics from the University of Cambridge. Her research
interests include optoelectronic and bioelectronic devices
based on organic and nanostructured materials, and char-
acterizations of the electronic processes in these devices.
sensing materials are three indispensable parts of a pressure
sensor. Polyimide (PI),[27] polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS),[28] and
polyethylene terephthalate (PET)[18] are common materials for
flexible substrates. Patterned films made from gold,[27] silver,[29]
copper,[30] liquid metal,[31] and indium tin oxide (ITO)[32] are
used as electrode materials for their good electrical conductivity.
In the following subsections, we mainly review the sensing
materials according to their sensing mechanisms.
3.1. Piezoresistive Sensors
Piezoresistive sensors transduce pressure input into a resist-
ance change of the device (Figure  2a). In this type of devices,
the active material is either laid on a pair of parallel interdigital
electrodes or sandwiched between two vertically aligned elec-
trodes. The active material should provide both sufficient charge
transport paths for electrical current flows and good elasticity
to be compatible with various mechanical deformation during
operation. Composite materials consisting of an elastic matrix
and conductive fillers are the most popular material choice to
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Figure 1.  Illustration of the structure of this review. Applications of pressure sensors such as wearable health monitoring platform, prosthetic e-skins,
human–machine interfaces, etc., require new functionalities and better performances. To this end, new materials and various structural designs
have been proposed and realized with the aid of theoretical modeling and advanced manufacturing methods. Reproduced with permission.[146]
Copyright 2018, WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. Reproduced with permission.[201] Copyright 2018, WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. Reproduced with
permission.[144] Copyright 2018, WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. Reproduced with permission.[125] Copyright 2014, Springer Nature. Reproduced under
the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.[19] Copyright 2018, The Authors, published by Springer Nature.
Reproduced with permission.[123] Copyright 2015, WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. Reproduced with permission.[219] Copyright 2018, WILEY-VCH Verlag
GmbH & Co. Reproduced with permission.[187] Copyright 2018, WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co.

meet the requirements. For the elastic component, polymers
(e.g., PDMS,[33] polyacrylic ester (PEA),[34] and polyurethane
(PU)[35]), hydrogels (e.g., polyacrylamide (PAAm)[36]), and
bioderived materials (e.g., fibroin[37] and cotton[38]) are com-
monly selected. For the conductive component, carbon-based
fillers (e.g., carbon black,[39] carbon nanotube,[40] MXene,[41]
graphene,[42] and carbonized biomass[43]), metal nanoproducts
(e.g., Au/Ag nanowires and nanoparticles[44,45]), and conductive
polymers (e.g., polypyrrole (PPy)[18] and polyaniline (PANI)[46])
have been investigated and showed good device performance.
In many applications, simply modifying the composi-
tion of the elastic matrix and conductive filler cannot achieve
the desired sensor characteristic (e.g., high sensitivity and wide
linear range), and therefore, microstructuring of the active
material is applied according to the transduction mechanism of
the sensor. For instance, a piezoresistive response can originate
from the contact resistance between the active material and the
electrodes[47,48] or the bulk resistance inside the active mate-
rial.[49,50] Compared with bulk resistance change, the contact
resistance change can often lead to a larger variation under the
same pressure as a small increase of the contact area between
a poorly contacted electrode and active material can drastically
reduce the contact resistance.[51] Accordingly, high-sensitivity
piezoresistive sensors usually contain an active layer with a
rough surface, which is achieved either spontaneously during
material growth or through the use of a mold (e.g., etched
silicon,[52,53] abrasive paper,[54,55] and leaves[56–58]) to shape the
layer surface morphology. It has also been found recently that
wrinkle-like surface morphology can be formed by exploiting
the mechanical instability caused by polymer swelling,[59] heat

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Figure 2.  Piezoresistive pressure sensors. a) Schematic illustration of the working mechanism of piezoresistive pressure sensors. b) Active materials
with four different morphologies placed in a vertical sensor structure. c) Corresponding transfer curves of the sensors in (b). Reproduced under the
terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.[19] Copyright 2018, The Authors, published by Springer Nature.
d) Transfer curves of piezoresistive films with the hierarchical structure (HIE) and without the hierarchical structure (DOME). Insets: scanning electron
microscopy (SEM) images of HIE and DOME structure. Scale bar: 50 µm. e) The illustration showing the effect of hierarchical structure on increasing
the number of contact between the electrode and the material. The corresponding hierarchical surface is shown in the dashed box. Reproduced with
permission.[61] Copyright 2016, WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. f) Fabrication process of hollow graphene/silicone piezoresistive pressure sensor.
g) Increase of sensitivity by increasing the graphene growth time from 3 to 30 min (from G3P7 to G30P7). h) Increase of linear range by increasing
the ratio of A:B component of PDMS from 1:20 to 1:5 (i.e., from G5P20 to G5P5). Reproduced with permission.[51] Copyright 2017, WILEY-VCH Verlag
GmbH & Co.

treatment,[47] self-assembly,[60] and mismatch between the mod-
ulus of the elastic matrix and conductive fillers.[21,34] Park et al.
compared the sensitivity of CNT/PDMS composite films with
microdome, micropyramid, and micropillar surface structures,
among which the microdome structure shows the highest sen-
sitivity in all pressure ranges as a result of the largest contact
area variation, as shown in Figure 2b,c.[19] It was found that
creating wrinkles on the surface of the microdome structure to
form hierarchical surface morphology can further increase the
sensitivity, as shown in Figure 2d,e.[61] A number of material
systems have been used to demonstrate that higher surface pro-
file increases the sensitivity as it leads to a smaller initial area
and a larger area variation.[19,61,62] Similar to the active mate-
rials, the roughness of the electrode can be tailored to increase
the sensitivity, and gold micropillar arrays[63] and rough copper
electrodes have been made to achieve this end.[18] Another
approach to increasing the contact variation is to include a
porous layer (e.g., an electrospun film[64]) or an anodic alu-
minum oxide (AAO) membrane as an insulating spacer
between the electrode and active material.[60] In this case, the
porosity and the thickness of the insulating spacer should be
carefully controlled to tune the contact area.[65]
It is worthwhile to note that a solid active layer with only a
rough surface usually exhibits sensitivity decay in the high

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pressure region when the rough surface is flattened by the
stress and deformation during the loading process.[47,52–56]
Accordingly, micro- or nanostructured matrix is introduced
to address this problem. For example, polymer-based aero-
gels containing freeze-dried conductive components was used
to construct the active layer, exhibiting highly reversible mor-
phology after large-deformation cycles.[33,43,66–68] In addition,
woven or nonwoven fiber networks, such as textile and paper,
were utilized as the skeleton of the active materials through
carbonization or surface decoration with conductive compo-
nents.[48,69] Recently, Luo et al. reported a hollow graphene/sili-
cone composite (Figure 2f) that allows for independent tuning
of sensitivity and linear range as shown in Figure 2g,h.[51] With
the combination of a rough surface and compressible bulk
structure, a wide linear range (>50 kPa) and high sensitivity
(>10 kPa−1) can be achieved.
3.2. Piezocapacitive Sensors
Piezocapacitive sensors transduce pressure input to a change
in the capacitance of a parallel plate capacitor, which is given
by C = ε 0εdr A , where A is the overlapping area of the two plates or
effective area of the capacitor, ε0 is the permittivity of vacuum,
εr is the relative permittivity of the dielectric material between
the plates, and d is the separation between the plates. Similar to
piezoresistive sensors, piezocapacitive sensors consist of three
main components, i.e., electrode, substrate and active mate-
rial that should be a dielectric medium. Over the past ten
years, a number of conductive materials and composites, such
as ITO,[20,32] carbon nanotubes,[31] Au,[70] AgNW,[35,71,72] Mg,[73]
AgNPs,[24] and ionic liquid,[74] have been explored for their
potential use as the electrode material of piezocapacitive sen-
sors. A variety of low modulus dielectric materials, such as
PDMS,[20,75] Ecoflex,[71] AgNW-polyurethane composites,[35]
glycerol sebacate,[73] iontronic film,[32] poly-(methyl meth-
acrylate),[72] graphene oxide,[76] and CNT/PDMS,[74] have been
studied as the dielectric medium.
Deformation of dielectrics caused by external pressure leads
to a change in capacitance (Figure  3a). From this perspective,
improving the compressibility of the dielectric layer directly
increases sensitivity. To this end, various dielectric layers
have been designed and structured for lower elastic modulus,
such as micropyramid PDMS,[20,70,77] porous PDMS with air
gap,[24,78] porous foam,[23,76] rough surface,[25] and nanoparticles-
dispersed polymer.[79] In air-embedded structures, the dielectric
constant change may contribute significantly to sensitivity as
shown in Figure 3b, i.e., when the structured films are com-
pressed, the air volume is reduced, resulting in an increase
in the effective dielectric constant since air has a lower dielec-
tric constant than elastomers.[20] In addition, the viscoelastic
behavior of an elastomer will be reduced after an air-embedded
structure is created in its bulk, resulting in a shorter response
and relaxation time.[20]
Various methods have been employed to achieve a structured
dielectric layer. Lee et al. used a paper as a mold to create sur-
face roughness in a “half-cell” and then fabricated a capacitive
pressure sensor by placing two identical half-cell capacitors
face-to-face.[25] As shown in Figure 3c, each half-cell consists
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of three layers: paper substrate, transferred graphite electrode,
and spin-coated PDMS dielectric that still maintains the rough
surface morphology of the graphite-coated paper (if the spin-
coating speed is well controlled). It is argued that good pressure
response may result from 1) the increase of the effective dielec-
tric constant following the pressure induced closure of air gaps
in the sensor and 2) the interlock of the rough graphite surfaces
upon loading, which increases the overlapped electrode areas.
In some applications, a pressure sensor is integrated with other
optical components and therefore the optical transparency of
the device is needed. To achieve high transparency and sensi-
tivity simultaneously, Kim et al. utilized homogeneously and
heterogeneously dispersed SiO2 nanoparticles on a dielectric
surface to form a microstructure.[79] The haze, i.e., wide angle
scattering, is minimized by controlling the particle size based
on their aggregation and separation tendency, and the transpar-
ency (>95%) and sensitivity (up to 1.0 kPa−1) are also optimized,
as shown in Figure 3d–f, respectively. The nonmonotonic rela-
tion between the sensitivity (or transparency) and particle size
is due to the different dispersion states at different particle
sizes.
Introducing pressure-dependent-permittivity in the dielectric
layer is another way to improve sensitivity. In 1980, Grannan
et al. reported that adding conductive fillers into a dielectric
material to near its percolation threshold can increase the rela-
tive permittivity of the material dramatically.[80] Wang et al.
exploited this idea and fabricated a flexible pressure sensor with
a AgNW-filled PU film as the dielectric interlayer,[35] achieving a
sensitivity of 5.54 kPa−1 for pressure below 30 Pa and 0.88 kPa−1
for pressure above 30 Pa.
Besides capacitor structures, a field effect transistor (FET)
structure can also be used to provide piezocapacitive response
while offering an additional advantage of self-amplification. Air
dielectric layers and suspended gate electrodes were utilized by
Zang et al. to make an ultrasensitive pressure-sensitive FET,[81]
which presents an unprecedented sensitivity of 192 kPa−1, a
low limit-of-detection pressure of <0.5 Pa, and a short response
time of 10 ms. It is however worth noting that the adoption of
air as the dielectric medium may result in unstable sensing
performance, which is highly susceptible to various interfer-
ences around the sensor. Schwartz et al. integrated micro-
structured PDMS dielectric in thin film polymer transistors,
achieving a sensitivity of 8.4 kPa−1 by operating the transistor in
the subthreshold regime.[75] Integrating pressure-sensitive com-
ponent into a transistor structure may also be a good solution
to achieve sensor array configurations by virtue of its compat-
ibility with low-cost large-area fabrication processes.
3.3. Supercapacitive Iontronic Pressure Sensors
Supercapacitive iontronic pressure sensors also transduce a
pressure input into a capacitance change; however, this type of
pressure sensors utilizes the formation of an electron double
layer (EDL) at the dielectric/electrode contact to enhance the
piezocapacitive effect. In brief, an ionic fluid or gel containing
numerous cations and anions is sandwiched between the two
electrodes. When the voltage is on, cations and anions are
respectively attracted to the cathode and anode to form two
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Figure 3.  Capacitive pressure sensors. a) Schematic illustration of the working principle of a capacitive pressure sensor. b) Schematic illustration of
the deformation process of capacitive pressure sensors with and without the air embedded dielectric layer under loading process. Reproduced with
permission.[23] Copyright 2016, ACS Publications. c) Schematic illustration of the half-cell capacitor. Reproduced with permission.[25] Copyright 2017,
WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. d) Aggregation and separation tendency of the colloidal particles according to the particle size (top). Tilted-view
SEM images of silica nanospheres dispersed onto a PEDOT: PSS layer (bottom). e) Measured transparency of the films in d). For the 500 nm silica
nanospheres, the transparency was 97% at the wavelength of 550 nm. f) Transfer curves of the transparent capacitive sensors made by films in d). The
capacitive pressure sensor with the SiO2 particles of 500 nm shows the highest sensitivity of 1.0 kPa−1 below 2 kPa. Reproduced with permission.[79]
Copyright 2018, WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co.

EDLs. The working mechanism of this type of sensors relies on
the contact area variation between the electrodes and the active
materials, as shown in Figure  4a. When pressure is applied,
the contact area is increased, and more cations or anions are
attracted to the contact surface, thus increasing the capaci-
tance. Owing to the EDL, the supercapacitive iontronic pressure
sensors show a higher specific capacitance than conventional
capacitive sensors and are argued to be more suitable for signal
acquisition and analysis.[82]
Ionic liquids, such as 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium
bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)imide ([EMIM][TFSI]), play a
significant role in this type of sensors due to its high ionic
conductivity, high boiling point, and low viscosity.[83] It can work
independently in microfluidic pressure sensors,[83] or in coor-
dination with the polymer to form ionic gels.[32] Similar to the
requirements of the electrolytes of ion batteries, the polymer
should have low crystallinity and a high dielectric constant.
The amorphous domains allow the anions and cations to move
quickly through the free volumes to respond to the pressure.
Poly (vinylidene fluoride-co-hexafluoropropylene) (PVDF-HFP)
has been shown to be a good candidate.[84]
As a type of microfluidic sensors, the sensing performance
of the supercapacitive iontronic pressure sensors heavily relies
on the geometric cavity parameters, and the miniaturization

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Figure 4.  Supercapacitive iontronic pressure sensors. a) Schematic illustration of the working mechanism of supercapacitive iontronic pressure sen-
sors. b) Cross-sectional view of the epidermal–iontronic interface with human skin as one electrode. c) Performance of the devices in b). Reproduced
with permission.[86] Copyright 2018, WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. d) Device structure and e) transfer curves of all-fabric supercapacitive iontronic
pressure sensors. Reproduced with permission.[89] Copyright 2017, WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. f) Device structure containing biomimetic dielectric
layer (SEM image in the dashed box) templated from a calathea zebrine leaf. g) Transfer curve of the sensor in (f). Reproduced with permission.[88]
Copyright 2018, WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co.

of the lateral pixels leads to a high threshold pressure and a
decreased sensitivity.[83,85] Therefore, much effort has been
made to develop solid ionic gels that generate a large varia-
tion of contact area, as is the case with piezoresistive sensors.
Air gaps were introduced to the sensor structures between the
electrode and the ionic gel,[32] and interestingly, human skin
could act as the electrode in the epidermal devices as shown in
Figure 4b,c.[86] Ionic gels with the fabric structure (Figure 4d,e),
micropyramid[87] and microdome structures (Figure 4f,g),[88]
were investigated for the purpose of sensitivity improvement.[89]
More research needs to be conducted in order to fully under-
stand and enhance the performance of such sensors.
3.4. Piezoelectric and Triboelectric Pressure Sensors
Piezoelectricity was first discovered by the Curie brothers
in 1880, and it refers to the phenomenon where positive and
negative charges are spatially separated in certain materials
in response to an applied mechanical stress, or vice versa
(Figure  5a). Piezoelectric sensors are suitable for dynamic
measurements of pressure due to their variation-dependent
sensing mechanism. They are not applicable to static sensing
because the sensor generated output voltage is impulsive.
Many materials have been found to exhibit piezoelectricity.
They can be natural or synthetic, organic or inorganic. Alu-
minum nitride (AlN),[90] ZnO,[91] PbTiO3,[92] BaTiO3,[93] lead zir-
conate titanate (PZT),[94] polyvinylidenefluoride (PVDF),[95] and
poly(vinylidenefluoride-co-trifluoroethylene) (P(VDF-TrFE))[96,97]
have been studied for pressure sensing. Among these materials,
PVDF and its copolymers, such as P(VDF-TrFE), are promising
candidates for wearable pressure sensors due to their flexibility,
durability, light weight, ease of fabrication, chemical inert-
ness etc.[96] The problem of using PVDF for pressure sensing
lies in the coupled piezoelectric and pyroelectric effects. For
this reason, protection from thermal interference is required
in these sensors.[98] PVDF thin films need to be electrically
poled to create maximum polarization in a direction orthog-
onal to the film plane to achieve high sensitivity. Using elec-
trospinning eliminates this need due to its high-voltage nature
(Figure 5b).[96] PZT is one of the most commonly used piezo-
electric materials owing to its large piezoelectric and electrome-
chanical coupling coefficients. Intrinsically rigid as it is, PZT
can be integrated into flexible devices in the form of ultrathin
sheet and other nanostructured forms. Compared with sys-
tems incorporating organic active materials, PZT-based sensors
provide high sensitivity, fast response (sub-millisecond), low
hysteresis, and superior stability.[99]
Hybridizing piezoelectric materials with other functional
materials may improve the device performance and generate
novel properties. Han et al. developed a pressure visualiza-
tion and recording (PVR) system as shown in Figure 5c, which
can directly detect, visualize and record applied pressure by
combining ZnO-nanowire-matrix pressure sensors (ZPSs)
with WO3-film electrochromic device (ECD) array.[100] In the
PVR system, each pixel of the ECD array connects to a group
of ZnO nanowires via a linking electrode. Pressure applied to
the ZnO nanowires induces piezoelectric charges and these

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Figure 5.  Piezoelectric pressure sensors. a) Schematic illustration of the working principle of piezoelectric pressure sensors. b) Schematic illustration of
electrospinning. Reproduced with permission.[97] Copyright 2016, ACS Publications. c) Schematic illustration of the structure of the PVR system. Reproduced
with permission.[100] Copyright 2017, WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. d) Pressure responses of a pure PbTiO3-nanowire-based sensor, a graphene-based
sensor and a PbTiO3 nanowires/graphene sensor under a pressure pulse. Reproduced with permission.[92] Copyright 2017, ACS Publications.

charges change the colors of the corresponding pixels in the
ECD array due to the electrochromic property of WO3. Hence,
the distribution of external pressure can be directly visualized
by color changes. Notably, an obvious color change in ECD
requires large external pressure applied to the matrix, which
may be attributed to twofold factors, i.e., the low piezoelectric
efficiency  charge density  of ZPS and low coloration efficiency
 pressure  electrically charged after they come into frictional contact with
 optical density 
of ECD. Another issue is the so-called “color
 charge density 
memory effect” of WO3 film. Although claimed as a favorable
property, due to the fact that the color change can maintain for
hours and record the pressure distribution, the color memory
effect is not desirable for applications in real-time visualization
of pressure distribution. Chen et al. reported a pressure sensor
for static measurements based on PbTiO3 nanowires/graphene
heterostructures.[92] When pressure is applied, the induced
polarons in piezoelectric PbTiO3 nanowires work as charged
impurities, affecting the carrier mobility of graphene. As shown
in Figure 5d, compared with conventional piezoelectric pressure
sensors, this sensor achieves a static sensing sensitivity of
9.4 × 10−3 kPa−1 as a result of the heterostructures. Compared
with flexible piezoresistive sensors of which the response time
is on the scale of tens of milliseconds, this sensor shows much
faster response (the rise and fall time are about 5–7 ms).[92]
Mechanical to electric energy conversion can also occur in
the form of triboelectric effect, where certain materials become
a different material.[101] Triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs)
have been intensively studied for low-power or self-powered
pressure sensors[102–107] since the first prototype was reported
in 2012.[102] The output of these sensors is affected by both the
magnitude and frequency of external pressure and thus they
are suitable for dynamic sensing, e.g., vibration detection.
Based on TENG and mechanoluminescent materials, a full
dynamic-range pressure sensor matrix with high sensitivity and
resolution was fabricated.[105] The device was equipped with
two integrated sensing components, i.e., a triboelectric sensor
matrix and mechanoluminescent sensor matrix. The sensor
was able to visualize pressure distribution in low (<100 kPa)

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and high-pressure regimes (>1 MPa). A soft skin-like triboelec-
tric nanogenerator (STENG) that can be used for tactile sensing
was fabricated by adopting elastomers as the electrification
layer and ionic hydrogels as the electrode, achieving ultrahigh
stretchability (1160%) and transparency (average transmittance
of 96.2% for visible light) simultaneously.[106] The advantage of
the STENG lies in its capability to maintain the performance
until mechanical failure when compared with percolated net-
works of carbonaceous materials or metal nanowires, of which
performances degrade gradually and inevitably in the stretching
process. The drawback is the weak interfacial bonding between
the electrification layer and electrodes as hydrogels are hydro-
philic and elastomers are hydrophobic.
4. Theoretical Modeling
A model is a simplification of the real system. An intuitive
understanding of the experimental observation as well as para-
metric relationship among the sensor design parameters can be
established through a properly simplified model which requires
lower computational cost, while producing reliable predictions
that are consistent with experimental data. Modeling together
with computational analysis have been applied intensively
in pressure sensor studies[40,57,103,108] and help researchers to
explain, illustrate and predict the electrical and mechanical
properties of sensors under external pressure. Modeling also
assists the design of complex geometry and optimization of
design parameters at both material and device levels. For
example, Cantarella et al. reported a mesa-shaped elastomeric
substrate that supports electronic devices. With the aid of a
numerical parametric study based on finite element analysis
(FEA), they optimized the substrate structure and made it pos-
sible to localize the strains around the pillars and shield the
electronics, as shown in Figure  6a.[109] In another exemplary
case, through numerical simulations and analytical models, Jin
et al. showed that the electrical hysteresis behavior of CNT thin
film is governed by the ratio of the mean projected CNT length
over the film length, which was later verified in experimental
studies.[110]
Computational analysis has been widely used to illustrate
the impact of material microstructures on device sensitivity.
Kang et al. reported a capacitive pressure sensor based on a
sponge-like porous structured dielectric layer.[111] To analyze the
effect of pore size on the compressibility of porous layers, the
unit support was simplified as an isotropic elastic half pillar,
from which the Sneddon compliance as an indicator of com-
pressibility and sensitivity can be theoretically solved. The
microporous structure has been applied widely in dielectric
layers to design highly sensitive capacitive pressure sensors as
mentioned in the previous sections. Its critical effect on device
compressibility and sensitivity was investigated through FEA
by Kwon et al. (Figure 6b–d).[23] Similar strategies for achieving
high sensitivity, e.g., micromyramid and microcones, have
also been studied using FEA by Tee et al.,[112] and Qiu et al.,[88]
respectively. Ho et al. reported a crack-enhanced microfluidic
capacitive sensor and analyzed how the crack deformation and
liquid wettability influence the performance by simulating the
movement of air-liquid interface.[113] When large deformation
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of dielectric layers is involved, nonlinearity of the materials
should be considered in the model to provide precise predic-
tion of performance; however, this comes at the expense of
computational efficiency.[114] As for piezoresistive materials,
this similar effect of porous structure was simulated and exper-
imentally validated by Jung et al.[115] Interlocked microdome
design, which increases the sensitivity and shortens response
time, was studied with FEA and a theoretical model by Park
et al.,[52] showing that the superior sensor performance benefits
from the giant tunneling piezoresistance present in this design.
Interestingly, Pang et al. compared various surface shape
design, including pyramid, hemisphere (dome), nanowire, and
random distribution spinosum (RDS), and claimed that the
RDS pressure sensor exhibits the highest sensitivity and the
broadest linear range by simulating their resistance variations
under pressure with a model shown in Figure 6e,f.[54] The four
structures were defined by the corresponding height distribu-
tion matrix and each element in the contact area was equivalent
to a resistor with a constant value of resistance, which con-
tributed to the total contact resistance, assuming all resistors
were connected in parallel. By observing the contact points in
the simulated loading process, it was learnt that the sharp mor-
phology which enhances the compressibility contributes to the
sensor’s high sensitivity, while the random distribution contrib-
utes to the sensor’s wide linear range.
Analytical and computational analyses have also been
applied in the research that aims to achieve certain sensor char-
acteristics other than high sensitivity or good linearity, such as
bending insensitivity, wide response bandwidth, etc.
Lee et al. utilized simulations to illustrate the structural
advantage of a new material design, i.e., a nanoporous structure
made from electrospun composite nanofibers for a bending-
insensitive pressure sensor.[116] The FEA simulation was con-
ducted in ABAQUS, where the randomly stacked electrospun
nanofibers were simplified as a square lattice of ligaments
and the fibers were assumed to be well bonded. When the
nanofibers were bent to a radius to thickness ratio of two, the
fibers were deflected to accommodate the large deformation.
As a result, the maximum strain was ≈7%, while as a compar-
ison, a continuous sheet would have a maximum lateral strain
of 25% according to the classical beam theory. Although the
model is simplified, it is reasonable to emulate the nanofibers
as a lattice of ligaments as it captures the key structural char-
acteristics of the electrospun nanofibers. On the other hand,
the simulation results also suggest that the fibers were almost
not stretched under bending. By just combining the simula-
tion results one cannot draw a direct relation between the
adopted material structure and the bending insensitivity (i.e.,
the relation between the mechanical deformation of the active
material and the electrical response of the sensor needs to
be clarified); furthermore, the influence of the material-
electrode interfaces and fiber-to-fiber interfaces needs to be
considered. For instance, accordingly to another study,[69]
the resistance variation of a fiber-based pressure sensor is
dominated by the contact resistance of the material-electrode
interfaces and fiber-to-fiber interfaces.
Yang et al. reported a self-powered bionic membrane sensor
(BMS) for health-monitoring.[103] Inspired by the human ear-
drum, the oval shape of the multilayered-structure sensor
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Figure 6.  a) Simulation of bending and twisting to analyze the strain distribution of mesa-shaped elastomeric substrate. Reproduced with permis-
sion.[109] Copyright 2018, WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. b) Full 3D representative model of the porous Ecoflex dielectric cube and its stress distribu-
tion under compression. c) Compressive strain−pressure curves of the solid Ecoflex cube (left), the porous Ecoflex cube (right) by experiment and
simulation. d) Transfer curves by experiment and simulation for parallel-plate capacitor models with solid and microporous Ecoflex dielectric layers.
Reproduced with permission.[23] Copyright 2016, ACS Publications. e) Simulated pressure distributions for different surface microstructures: pyramid,
hemisphere, nanowire, and random distribution spinosum microstructure under 5 kPa. f) Transfer curves of sensors made by the active materials with
different surface microstructures in (e). Reproduced with permission.[54] Copyright 2018, ACS Publications.

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enables the BMS to rapidly measure pressure variation over
an exceptionally wide frequency, i.e., from 100 to 3200 Hz.
The BMS is therefore able to acquire and recover the human
signals of both low-frequency, e.g., arterial pulse wave, and
high-frequency, e.g., throat sound. The working principle was
elucidated with the aid of FEA, where the vibration patterns of
the oval polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) membrane in response
to external pressure from 100 to 5000 Hz was investigated. As
demonstrated in Figure  7a, the deformation distribution and
magnitudes of the tympanic PTFE membrane highly depend
on the excitation frequencies. The frequency response of the
deformation amplitudes was studied via a series of simulated
experiments, showing a bandwidth of up to 3200 Hz. Figure 7b
presents the FEA modeling of the electricity generation process
induced by the membrane, which clearly shows the electric
potential distribution at different stages of vibration. When the
PTFE membrane contacts the nylon layer under external pres-
sure, triboelectric charges are generated on both sides of the
membrane due to their different affinity for electrons. In this
state, there is no potential difference between the two layers
since the generated positive and negative charges balance each
other due to electrostatic induction. Once the two layers are
separated, a potential drop occurs between the two layers and
between the ITO electrode and ground, driving the electrons
to flow from the ground to the ITO electrode. The electricity
generation process is simulated based on a simple parallel-plate
model, showing the potential distribution when the planar
PTFE and nylon layers are closed and separated; note that in
the model the deformation of the layers is not considered.
Although various vibration patterns, i.e., deformation areas and
magnitudes, of the PTFE membrane in response to different
frequencies were simulated, their effect on the electrical out-
puts, e.g., short-circuit current and open-circuit voltage, was not
studied. Ideally, the bandwidth should be directly obtained from
the electric response to input frequencies, but the frequency
response presented in the work is the amplitude of deforma-
tion instead of the electrical outputs. It is worth mentioning
that since a PTFE membrane normally deforms in a nonuni-
form way, the electrical outputs and deformation amplitude
may have a nonlinear relation. Therefore, the simulated sensor
bandwidth may not be entirely accurate.
Huang et al. demonstrated the design of a sensor fabrica-
tion process with the guidance of FEA,[33] which predicts the
influence of mechanical cutting processes on the structure and
morphology of an active material. In this work the sensor was
made from wood and the effect of the multichannel structures
in wood to enhance its performance was analyzed via FEA.
The mater wood was processed both vertically and horizon-
tally in reference to the natural wood channels. Experiments
found the horizontally cut materials have 10 times wider linear
range than the vertically cut materials; and this is attributed
to the new morphologies introduced by the cutting processes.
The simulation revealed the formation mechanism of the two
types of morphology produced by two different cuts. During a
horizontally cut, wood channels are peeled off because cracks
caused by the stress concentration at the channel wall intercon-
nection propagate along the channel walls, while the vertically
cut channels do not have this effect (Figure 7c,d). Accordingly,
the different cut directions introduce different types of surface
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morphologies, which was validated by surface profilometer as
shown in Figure 7e.
5. Application Scenarios and Derived Functions
There are a great variety of applications of pressure sensors.
We divide them into three categories: 1) human–machine inter-
face, 2) electronic skin, and 3) health monitoring. Driven by the
applications, the need for a number of specific functions, e.g.,
pressure distribution visualization and classification, arises for
better user experience or system reliability and accuracy. The
sensor development for the three main applications together
with other important application-driven functions are reviewed
in this section.
5.1. Human–Machine Interface
Human–machine interface refer to devices and software
installed on machines that assist the human–machine com-
munication. Flexible pressure sensors play an important role
in translating mechanical input from humans to electrical sig-
nals for controlling the machine, or for providing feedback. For
example, a smart glove with integrated pressure sensors was
able to control the movement of the robot arm to play music,[117]
and epidermal acoustic sensors and a speech recognition algo-
rithm could translate the commands from the human to con-
trol a virtual character in computer games.[118] Flexible touch
panels have been developed with transparent pressure sensor
arrays to fulfill the requirements of flexible displays.[119–122] Kim
et al. reported a surface-capacitive touch system as a stretchable
ionic touch panel, using touching fingers as a ground electrode
to determine the contact position.[120] A wearable touch panel
was demonstrated to write words, play music and chess, as
shown in Figure  8a–c. In addition, pressure sensors can also
be used in security applications, such as signature collectors for
the detection of signing characteristics.[123]
5.2. Electronic Skin
Electronic skin refers to a network of flexible electronics with
various sensing functionalities that emulate the functions
of human skin, but not limited to the functions of human
skin.[124,125] For practical applications, it can help the disabled
people to restore their sensing ability lost in accidents, e.g.,
prosthetics,[126,127] or build the biomimetic cognition of sur-
rounding stimulus on the surface of artificial robotics.[128,129]
Pressure sensors are an indispensable part of electronic skin;
and typically require large-area coverage with small sensing
pixels. Various prototypes of pressure sensor arrays installed
on hand, tongue, or robotics have been developed in recent
years.[130–132]
The combination of different functional electronic com-
ponents is often required to realize electronic skin. Com-
monly used functional components include sensors,[28] flexible
energy supply,[133–135] and transmitting and processing com-
ponents (Figure 8d).[136] The last one is essential for stimulus
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Figure 8.  Application demonstrations of electronic skin and human–machine interface. A highly stretchable ionic touch panel is capable of a) writing words,
b) playing music, and c) playing chess. Reproduced with permission.[120] Copyright 2016, the American Associations for the Advancement of Science.
d) Image (left) and circuit schematic illustration (right) of a model hand with tactile electronic skin. Reproduced with permission.[136] Copyright 2015, the
American Associations for the Advancement of Science. e) Discoid cockroach with an artificial afferent nerve on its back. f) Illustration of the working
mechanism of the system in (e). Reproduced with permission.[138] Copyright 2018, the American Associations for the Advancement of Science.

transportation, especially at the device/neuron interface.[137]
Kim et al. reported an artificial afferent nerve consisting of pie-
zoresistive pressure sensors, ring oscillators, and synaptic tran-
sistors to mimic the function of biological mechanoreceptors,
nerve fibers and biological synapses. The sensor not only cor-
rectly identified braille characters, but also actuated real muscle
tissues when connected to the nerves of a discoid cockroach, as
shown in Figure 8e,f.[138]
5.3. Health Monitoring
Flexible pressure sensors have been broadly applied in health-
care services to enable continuous, ubiquitous and unobtrusive
tactile and pressure sensing. They can be used in voice recogni-
tion,[103] heart rate and respiration rate monitoring,[33,139] head
position adjustment (Figure  9a,b),[89] plantar pressure map-
ping,[140] wound monitoring,[141] etc.
Various piezoresistive and capacitive pressure sensors
have demonstrated the capability of precise pulse measure-
ment,[26,70,75,142,143] which contains abundant physiological and
pathological information. Luo et al. reported that epidermal
pulses measured by a flexible piezoresistive sensor can be
used for beat-to-beat blood pressure (BP) tracking through the
pulse transit time (PTT) method with the aid of electrocardi-
ogram (ECG) electrodes, as shown in Figure 9c,d.[69] Chu et
al. experimentally verified that the pulse sensing system can
diagnose arrhythmia and detect BP through the oscillometric
method.[144]
Several issues exist when flexible pressure sensors are used
in cardiovascular monitoring. For example, when measuring
epidermal pulses on a wrist, recording quality signals requires
the sensor to be precisely located above the radial artery. Other-
wise, the measured signals can be distorted, preventing useful
physiological information from extraction.[75,145] Although the
alignment problem may be addressed by using densely packed
pressure sensor arrays, the required power will be multiplied
by the number of sensors. To address this problem, Fan et al.
proposed a wearable liquid capsule sensor platform embedded
with a piezoresistive pressure sensor.[146] In this sensor design
the pulsation signals can be precisely collected and transmitted
through flexible elastomeric membranes of the capsule to the

Figure 7.  a) Demonstration of the working principle of the bionic membrane sensor. The ANSYS software was employed to characterize the PTFE
membrane vibrations under various applied pressure at frequencies of 100, 500, 1000, and 5000 Hz, respectively. b) Simulated vibration induced
electricity generation process of a PTFE membrane via COMSOL. Reproduced with permission.[103] Copyright 2015, WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co.
c) Representative models to simulate the cutting trajectory to obtain the horizontal sample (right) and vertical sample (left). d) Simulated results of the
cutting process of the horizontal and vertical samples. e) Step profiler results demonstrating the relative surface roughness of horizontal and vertical
samples. Reproduced with permission.[33] Copyright 2018, WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co.

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Figure 9.  a) Photograph of the supercapacitive all-fabric facemask with 20 pressure sensing units. b) The facemask in (a) worn on a face that was
pressing a foam facial pillow. With such a mask, patients would be prevented from being exposed to excess face pressure by adjusting the head position
on time in prone-positioned surgeries. Reproduced with permission.[89] Copyright 2017, WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. c) Photograph of a flexible
piezoresistive sensor (FPS) attached to a wrist. The inset shows the active area of the sensor. d) Flexible sensor system containing FPS and epidermal
electrocardiogram (ECG) sensors for cuffless blood pressure (BP) measurement. Reproduced with permission.[69] Copyright 2016, WILEY-VCH Verlag
GmbH & Co. e) Materials and overall assembly of the fully biodegradable strain and pressure sensor. f) The sensor in (e) was subcutaneously implanted
on the back of a rat. g) Pressure signal recorded after 2 weeks (top left) and 3.5 weeks (top right) after sensor implantation. The corresponding baseline
shows recorded respiration of the rat after 2 weeks (bottom left) and 3.5 weeks (bottom right) in vivo. Reproduced with permission.[149] Copyright 2018,
Springer Nature.

liquid-embedded pressure sensor, which substantially relaxes
the typical stringent alignment requirements between the
sensor and the artery to 8.5 mm. Another important problem
is motion artifact, which compromises the accuracy of pres-
sure measurement. Although algorithms based on data pro-
cessing to eliminate motion artifacts and recover signals have
been proposed,[147] little progress on motion-tolerant pressure
sensors has been reported. For certain healthcare applications,
e.g., intraocular pressure measurements, sensors need to be
implanted inside the body[148] and continuously operate over a
long period of time; accordingly, the implanted devices need to
have good biocompatibility and biodegradability to avoid irri-
tability and to bypass the need for an extraction surgery when
they are no longer needed. Boutry et al. reported a stretchable
and biodegradable strain and pressure sensor for orthopedic
application, as shown in Figure 9e.[149] Figure 9f demonstrates
that the sensor can be implanted subcutaneously on the back
of a rat. Pressure stimuli was applied in vivo and the signals
are shown in Figure 9g, where a zoom-in view on the baseline
signals shows the rat respiration recording has good signal
quality.
5.4. Application-Driven New Functions
5.4.1. Pressure Distribution Visualization
Signal acquisition equipment and supporting software are
typically needed to translate the electrical signals into mean-
ingful physical values for sensor applications. However, in cer-
tain applications, e.g., human–machine interface, immediate
visualization of the pressure distribution is required or highly
desired, and additional sensor capabilities are designed to meet
the needs. Three types of working mechanisms for 2D pressure
visualization have been proposed; they are described in the fol-
lowing subsections:
Integration with Electro-/Thermochromic Devices: Electro-
chromic materials can modulate their optical properties through
reversible redox reactions by direct current potential[150] while
pressure sensors can alter the electrical signals in the circuits.
Therefore, the combination of both properties can be exploited
to control the colors of pressure sensors according to the input
pressure. Chou et al. fabricated a new device by integrating
an electrochromic device and a piezoresistive sensor with a

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Figure 10.  a) Laminated structure illustration of the pressure-chromic device and the related circuit. Reproduced under the terms and conditions of the
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.[151] Copyright 2015, The Authors, Springer Nature. b) Schematic illustration of the pressure
induced thermochromic device, and c) series of optical images (top) and temperature distribution (bottom) images during loading and unloading
on the device. Reproduced with permission.[154] Copyright 2017, WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. d) Schematic illustration of the working principle of
LED-based pressure sensor, and the demonstration of trace visualization in (e). Reproduced with permission.[155] Copyright 2018, ACS Publications.
f) Schematic illustration of the device structure of the LED-based pressure sensor array for pressure distribution visualization, and (g) imaging of the
“BINN” pattern. Reproduced with permission.[161] Copyright 2015, WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. h) Illustration of the device structure of the elec-
troluminescent sensor, and the images of the sensor conforming to the end of a pencil. Reproduced with permission.[162] Copyright 2016, the American
Associations for the Advancement of Science. i) Schematic structure of the mechanoluminescence device using ZnS:Mn particles. j) Record of the
signing habits of four persons using the sensors in (i). Reproduced with permission.[123] Copyright 2015, WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co.

pyramid structure, as shown in Figure  10a.[151] During an
operation, the loading of pressure decreases the sensor resist-
ance and simultaneously increases the voltage on the electro-
chromic device; accordingly the output color changes from dark
red to pale blue. Based on the piezo-phototronic theory, Han
et al. achieved fast mapping of pressure distribution through an
interactive matrix (10 × 10 pixels) by combining piezoelectric
zinc oxide (ZnO) and electrochromic tungsten oxide (WO3)
arrays.[100] As a piezoelectric material, ZnO can generate polar-
ized positive and negative charges under pressure loading at
the opposite sides of the material,[152,153] tuning the local band
structures. Therefore, the electric current through the elec-
trochromic layer (i.e., WO3) can be adjusted, leading to a color
change from transparent to blue. Similar to the case of electro-
chromic materials, thermochromic materials allow for modula-
tion of colors by temperature variation. Kim et al. integrated a

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heater, a sensor, and a thermochromic device to realize pres-
sure distribution mapping, as shown in Figure 10b,c.[154] In
this system, the pressure sensors incorporating a carbon black/
PDMS composite generate resistance change and heating effect
at the same time upon pressure loading, and the resulting tem-
perature rise is sufficient to induce a color change of the ther-
mochromic device.
Integration with LED: Organic LED devices are suitable for
integration with flexible pressure sensors to develop interac-
tive electronic skins because of their mechanical flexibility
and current/voltage-driven light emitting properties. Pres-
sure sensitive layers can be laminated between the electrode
and functional materials to provide current/voltage control as
shown in Figure 10d, and real-time display of pressure traces
can be realized, as shown in Figure 10e.[155,156] Wang et al. fabri-
cated an active matrix array and integrated a pressure sensitive
rubber above the cathode of a bilayer OLED, where the anode is
connected to the drain of a transistor.[157] When the pressure
increases, the brightness of the LED increases accordingly.
Traditional piezoelectric semiconductor, such as ZnO or
GaN, can also be utilized in LED structures to develop pres-
sure sensors by exploiting the piezo-phototronic effect.[158,159]
For example, n-type ZnO nanowires can be coupled with p-type
silicon, or PEPOT: PSS to form a p–n junction with a tunable
recombination rate of electrons and holes that are sensitive to
the input pressure.[160,161] The resulted devices show a spatial
resolution below 10 µm, which is substantially smaller than
that of thin-film structures, as shown in Figure 10f,g.
Integration with Phosphor Materials: Phosphorescent mate-
rials, such as ZnS, emit light in electric fields due to their
intrinsic heterojunctions. Dopants, such as copper and man-
ganese, function as wavelength centers within the ZnS lattice
to generate luminescence with different wavelengths. Because
of their powder-like morphology, dopants can be mixed
with polymers to act as dielectric layers (the green layer) in
the piezocapacitive sensors as shown in Figure 10h.[162] Because
of the asymmetry of the wurtzite structure of the ZnS, the
piezo-phototronic effect can also be induced in ZnS. It pro-
vides energy to help excite the electrons in Cu2+/Mn2+. When
the excited electrons return to the ground state, luminescence
is generated.[105,163] The dynamic pressure mapping of person-
alized handwriting has been realized by the device shown in
Figure 10i, where the collection of graphics and pressure inten-
sity recording are demonstrated in Figure 10j.[123]
5.4.2. Direction-Sensitive Force Detection
Pressure sensors generate responses not only to normal pres-
sure inputs, but also to other types of mechanical stimuli that
induce deformation, such as bending and shearing.[164,165]
This increases the difficulty of post data processing when the
pressure sensors are used as electronic skins or in health care
monitoring. Distinguishing stimulus is a common method to
reduce the influence of undesirable stimulus. Distinguishing
here means that a sensor outputs different types of signals
according to the nature of the different input signals. For
example, 3D force sensing can be realized in a piezocapacitive
pressure sensor through the integration of four parallel-plate
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capacitors as shown in Figure  11a.[166,167] The four capacitors
share the same top electrode, with four separate bottom elec-
trodes; a vertical pressure load decreases the thickness of the
dielectric layer, and an in-plane shear force varies the overlap-
ping area between the top and bottom electrodes, and accord-
ingly the output capacitances. These together allow three-axis
pressure sensing.[167] The direction-sensitive force detection has
also been realized in piezoresistive pressure sensors through a
unique four-sidewall electrode design.[168] The combination of
different sensing mechanisms can be used to distinguish force
sources. The integration of stretch-sensitive CNT films as the
electrodes of a capacitive pressure sensor can help to distin-
guish pressure, bending, and stretching inputs by measuring
the resistances of the two electrodes and system capacitance
simultaneously, i.e., the dielectric layer would show capacitance
variations under all three different stimuli while the two elec-
trodes would show similar resistance responses to stretching
but different responses to bending.[78] The combination of pie-
zoresistive and triboelectric devices provides another opportu-
nity to distinguish pressure and bending because triboelectric
devices only respond to dynamic pressures while piezoresistive
devices respond to both as shown in Figure 11b.[40]
Some direction-sensitive pressures sensors exhibit much
stronger responses to a pressure input over other types of
mechanical stimulus, such as bending. This has been explained
by Lee et al. from the material perspective. They reported that
bending insensitivity can be achieved through electrospun thin
films (total device thickness ≈2  µm), where nanofibers can
change their relative positions to relieve the stresses induced
by the bending deformation while maintaining the pressure
sensor’s sensitivity even when the bending radius is as small
as 80 µm (Figure 11d).[116] They also reported that a thinner
substrate layer can help to achieve better bending-insensitive
responses as a reduced thickness indicates small internal strain
as shown in Figure 11c. The same results were demonstrated
by other research groups.[122] Luo et al. systematically inves-
tigated the influence of the film thickness and the filler con-
centration in composite materials on bending insensitivity,
and it was found that a reduced thickness and proper filler
concentration (much higher than the percolation threshold
value) are beneficial to minimizing the influence of bending.[51]
More research and investigations, including material design,
device integration, and data processing, are needed to fully
address this challenge.
5.4.3. Other Functions
In addition to the aforementioned functions, some other
important properties, such as self-healing, biodegradability,
texture recognition, self-power, and wireless transmission,
are highly demanded for specific applications. Self-healing
is the ability of a material to recover its mechanical and elec-
trical properties when the material is mechanically processed,
e.g., cut or stamped. This is related to the incorporation of
dynamic molecular bonds existing in specific materials.[1,169,170]
Researchers often evaluate such ability through the test of the
recovery time, resistance variation before and after the damage,
and whether supplementary energy, such as heat, is needed.
© 2019 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim
www.advancedsciencenews.com www.afm-journal.de

Figure 11.  a) Electrode design of the capacitive pressure sensor capable of distinguishing forces from three directions. Reproduced with permis-
sion.[167] Copyright 2014, WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. b) Illustration on how integration of a pressure sensor and a triboelectric generator can be
used to distinguish pressure and bending input. Top: signals of triboelectric voltage and resistance under pressure. Bottom: signals of triboelectric
voltage and resistance under bending. Reproduced with permission.[40] Copyright 2017, WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. c) Resistance variation of the
pressure sensors made on substrates with different thickness and under different bending radius. d) Pressure responses of the bending insensitive
sensor under bending states with different bending radii, when the sensor was hit by metal bars with 0.4 g and 1.6 g mass. Reproduced with permis-
sion.[116] Copyright 2016, Springer Nature.

More information regarding self-healing devices can be found
in some published review papers.[1,171,172] Biodegradability is a
crucial property for pressure sensors developed for implants; if
a device is biodegradable, it means no additional surgical proce-
dures are required to remove the implant; and the device would
be degraded within the body through reactions with body fluid.
The nontoxic reaction products should be absorbed or excreted
outside the body. This can be achieved by using biodegradable
polymers and metals.[73,173,174]
For the e-skin to mimic the tactile sensation of human
hands, the ability of texture recognition is needed. In order
to fulfill this requirement, microstructures such as parallel
ridges and pyramids, are fabricated on the surface of pressure
sensors to transmit and amplify the vibration induced by the
texture.[175,176] When the sensors are moving across the sur-
face texture, the electrical signals generated by the sensors
are recorded over time. The signals are then converted to the
frequency-domain output through fast Fourier transform.[177]
It is demonstrated that the frequency with the highest ampli-
tude can be related to the periodicity distance of the surface
texture,[178] with the minimum detectable stripe width around
15 µm.[176]
For the sensor system design, some practical functions are
considered by researchers such as self-power and wireless
transmission. Self-power here means that the sensor can work
without external power supply. The piezoelectric and triboelec-
tric sensors can realize this function because of the intrinsic
properties of the active material.[179] Wireless transmission
becomes an important function when real-time extraction and
display of the sensing information is required.[108,180,181] Induc-
tive coupling using an LC resonator has been applied for pas-
sive wireless data transmission. In this design, an inductor
and a capacitor are connected in series to form the LC reso-
nator.[141,182] As the applied pressure changes, the capacitance
or inductance of the sensor changes; accordingly, the frequency
response of the wireless sensor is changed. The sensor design
incorporating an LC resonator is easy for miniaturization due
to its simple structure. However, the transmitted data needs to
be further processed as the signal only reflects the raw phase or
frequency response of the device. Other wireless technologies,
e.g. Bluetooth, ZigBee, Infrared Data Association (IrDA), Near
Field Communication (NFC), etc., have also been used in wear-
able sensing systems. Detailed comparison of these technolo-
gies can be found in previous review papers.[183,184]
6. Manufacturing
From the application perspective, large-area fabrication in com-
bination with small pixels and batch production are highly
desired. Importantly, for batch processes, each pixel must
have high repeatability to generate reliable results. Unlike fab-
ricating devices in laboratories, manual fabrication of active
materials with complex surface/bulk structures is not viable
in terms of both cost and throughput. To tackle this challenge,
advanced manufacturing methods have been developed and

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www.advancedsciencenews.com
demonstrated great potentials in manipulating and fabricating
various material structures in a fast and controllable way. They
can work independently to fabricate functional materials, or
synergistically to produce integrated devices.[185,186] We sum-
marize the recent efforts that utilize these methods in the
fabrication of flexible pressure sensors to provide a sensor
development guideline in consideration of scaling up the fab-
rication processes for practical and commercial applications. In
the following sections, we introduce three categories of manu-
facturing methods according to the involved physical processes.
6.1. Mechanical Force-Assisted Manufacturing Methods
In this section, we introduce manufacturing methods that
employ pumping or apply contact pressure via nozzles or molds.
Examples include direct inkjet printing, microcontact printing,
roll-to-roll printing, and screen printing. Among them, the roll-
to-roll printing and screen printing processes are particularly
suitable for fabricating 2D patterns, such as electrodes.[71,187–191]
For example, all-printed high-density thin film transistor (TFT)
arrays, e.g., 9.3 points in.−1, were fabricated through roll-to-roll
printing, where the pressure sensing function was achieved
by integrating with piezoresistive rubbers.[191] Recently, a few
ultrahigh-resolution roll-to-roll systems have been developed
based on flexures and advanced control, which may be used
to produce next-generation high-resolution pressure sensor
arrays.[192–194] For direct inkjet printing,[195] the method prints
both 2D and 3D structures by the extrusion of polymer-based
inks through a nozzle following the programmed trajectory. In
addition to the electrode fabrication,[196–198] the direct writing
technology has a unique advantage in building 3D foam-like
structures, such as conductive aerogel, which can sustain large
deformation.[199–201] Chen et al. produced a CNT coated PU
foam with hierarchical porosities through the sequential direct
writing process, etching, and dip-coating. The high elasticity of
this structure results in a wide sensing range of 40 kPa.[202] Guo
et al. reported an all printed tactile sensor containing a silicone
base, silver/silicone electrodes, a spring-like sensing layer, and
an isolating layer through the continuous direct writing pro-
cess, as shown in Figure  12a.[203] However, since the diameter
of the printed filament heavily depends on the nozzle size and
position, printing speed, and the precursor composition, the
fabrication difficulty are greatly increased when a filament with
small diameters, e.g., <50 µm, is needed.[204]
6.2. Electric Field-Assisted Manufacturing Methods
Electroplating, electrospraying, and electrospinning are three
common manufacturing methods enabled by the application of
electric fields. The first two methods are useful in surface deco-
ration[205,206] and electrospinning is useful in creating porous
architectures with micro- or nanofibers.[207–209] In an electro-
spinning process, high voltages are applied to the droplets at
the nozzle; when the electric force becomes larger than the sur-
face tension force, a jet shoots out from the Taylor cone. The
diameter of the fiber is usually much smaller than ones made
from 3D printing, e.g., <1  µm. Flexible and porous polymer
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mesh fabricated through electrospinning can function as a
layer of dielectric or piezoelectric materials with tunable proper-
ties.[210,211] The nonconductive polymer mesh can be converted
to piezoresistive materials through carbonization,[37,209] or sur-
face coating.[207,212] Kweon et al. fabricated a sponge-like PVDF-
HFP network as the active material, with PEDOT grown on the
fiber surface to provide conductivity, and demonstrated a sensor
array with 16 × 10 pixels.[180] Several studies have introduced
conductive fillers in the ink solution of the electrospinning
system to realize composite fiber networks. Notably, a uniform
dispersion of the filler still remains a challenge; and a high
filler loading ratio is difficult to achieve.[116] The application
of electric fields during the electrospinning process is benefi-
cial to the formation of the crystalline β phase in PVDF, which
increases the intensity of the output piezoelectric signals.[213,214]
In addition, using separated parallel collectors, or rotating the
collector can achieve aligned piezoelectric nanofiber arrays,
which have higher voltage output than the randomly dispersed
fiber arrays, as shown in Figure 12b.[96,215] The output films are
free standing with numerous aligned fibers inside as shown in
Figure 12c. This can also be realized through near-field elec-
trospinning (i.e., electrohydrodynamic direct-writing), which
shows advantages in precise pattern control that conventional
electrospinning processes cannot achieve. The set-up of near
field electrospinning is the same as conventional ones, with
the nozzle to collector distance decreasing from centimeters to
millimeters as shown in Figure 12d.[216] Because of the reduced
working distance, the fibers can either reach the collector in the
stable zone (vs the whipping instable zone),[217] or be dragged
by a collector that moves at high speeds to overcome the whip-
ping forces caused by environmental influences.[218] Currently,
there are only limited material systems available for the near-
field electrospinning process, and more efforts are needed in
this direction.
6.3. Light-Assisted Manufacturing Methods
Light can be used to provide energy for 1) material carboniza-
tion or sintering to achieve conductivity, 2) material subtrac-
tion, and 3) polymerization. In electrode fabrication, laser focus
can generate localized heat to selectively convert nonconduc-
tive materials into conductive carbon materials.[219] Pristine
textile or paper can be transformed into interdigital electrodes
through laser scribing to help the fabrication of all-textile pres-
sure sensors or paper electronics.[220] The resulted carbon mate-
rial usually possesses a nano/microporous structure, which can
be used as scaffolds to support composite materials, as shown
in Figure 12e.[221] Similarly, the highly concentrated laser power
can be used to sinter the unconnected metal nanoparticles to
achieve conductive paths.[222] Material subtraction via light can
be achieved in the forms of melting, evaporation or sublimation
depending on the applied laser power. Ultrafast lasers are often
used to fabricate high-resolution structures (<400 nm) at the
expense of cost. Recent development in parallel ultrafast laser
processes may substantially lower the cost of high-precision
laser processing.[223] For example, lasers have been used to
fabricate molds with conical or pyramid cavities to replace the
conventional silicon molds for soft lithography.[224]
© 2019 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim
www.advancedsciencenews.com www.afm-journal.de

Figure 12.  a) Fabrication process of an all 3D-printed tactile sensor. Reproduced with permission.[203] Copyright 2017, WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co.
b) An electrospinning setup for highly aligned nanofibers of PVDF. Here, E means the direction of the electric field and ΔV is the applied bias. c) Optical
image (scale bar, 1 cm) and SEM image (in the dashed box, scale bar, 10 µm) of aligned arrays fabricated through the equipment in b). Reproduced
with permission.[96] Copyright 2013, Springer Nature. d) The set-up of the near-field electrospinning. Reproduced with permission.[218] Copyright 2014,
Royal Society of Chemistry. e) Fabrication process of the carbon/silver nanocomposite using laser pyrolization and selective aqueous silver ionic solu-
tion trapping. Reproduced with permission.[221] Copyright 2016, ACS Publications. f) Schematic illustration of dynamic optical projection stereolithog-
raphy. Reproduced with permission.[227] Copyright 2012, WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. g) Laser scanning confocal images of the PAAm composite
micropattern. Reproduced with permission.[228] Copyright 2018, WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co.

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www.advancedsciencenews.com
Light, e.g., ultraviolent light, can convert certain liquid
precursors from low molecular weight materials into solid
polymers of high molecular weight through the crosslinking
effect.[225] The laser point can cure the liquid precursor point
by point to fabricate the patterned structures.[226] In order to
increase the throughput, digital-mircormirror devices (DMDs)
have been used to realize stereolithography. In this method,
millions of micromirrors on a DMD function as program-
mable pixels of a designed image; each micromirror has two
stable states at 12° and −12° corresponding to the “on” and “off”
states in a sliced mold, as shown in Figure 12f. Comparing with
other methods, e.g., focused ion-beam lithography and two-
photon polymerization (TPP), this approach achieves a higher
fabrication speed facilitated by the “batch fabrication process”
enabled by the DMD.[227] After passing through the projection
optics, the guided light (e.g., UV light) polymerizes all mate-
rials at the focal plane at once; and rapidly produce 3D struc-
tures in a layer by layer fashion. Structured PAAm hydrogels
with ionic fillers or gold nanowires inside have been fabricated
as the active material for sensors using this method, as shown
in Figure 12g.[228,229] Notably, several parallelized TPP methods
have been developed recently which may be used to fabricate
high-resolution pressure sensors with high throughput and
yield in the near future.[230,231]
7. Conclusion
We have reviewed the latest development of the material and
device design, modeling, and manufacturing methods of flex-
ible pressure sensors according to their working mechanisms.
Important applications in the areas of human–machine inter-
face, electronic skin, and health monitoring have been dis-
cussed. A number of application-driven functions are reviewed
with an emphasis on how direction-sensitive detection and
pressure distribution visualization may enhance pressure
measurement accuracy and human–machine interaction.
Lastly, we summarized the advanced manufacturing methods
used for large-scale fabrication in this area.
Future research work and efforts for practical applica-
tions and commercialization should focus on addressing
the following challenges. The first one is the development of
a multiscale, consistent theoretical description of sensing
mechanisms that bridge the material properties and device
performances. The second one is the selection and develop-
ment of proper active materials which can be mass-produced
in a repeatable, ecofriendly, and inexpensive fashion with high
sensing performances. The third one is the design and devel-
opment of large-area array-device to achieve smaller pixel sizes
and minimal cross-talks. The fourth one is the integration of
pressure sensors with other flexible electronics, including
interconnects and data collection and processing components.
The aforementioned challenges provide an opportunity for
researchers from different disciplines, e.g., chemistry, mate-
rial science, mechanical engineering, electronic engineering
and computer engineering, to contribute efforts collectively and
cooperatively to realize the goal of low-cost, high-performance,
and high reliability wearable electronics for improving the
overall human well-being.
Adv. Funct. Mater. 2019, 1808509 1808509  (20 of 24)
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Acknowledgements
Y.H. and X.Y.F. contributed equally to this work. This work was supported
by Research Grants Council of Hong Kong (Grant Nos. CUHK 14207615
and CUHK 14209081) and Hong Kong Innovation and Technology
Commission (Grant Nos. MRP/056/17X and ITS/428/17FP).
Conflict of Interest
The authors declare no conflict of interest.
Keywords
applications, manufacturing, materials, modeling, pressure sensors
Received: November 30, 2018
Revised: January 6, 2019
Published online:
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