Transparent and flexible electronic skin and method for fabricating the same

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12558797-B2
Application number	US-202318492808-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 24, 2023
Priority date	Oct 24, 2023
Publication date	Feb 24, 2026
Grant date	Feb 24, 2026

Abstract

The present invention provides a transparent and flexible electronic skin with three-dimensional sensing capability. The electronic skin comprises: a substrate; an transparent and flexible electric field sensor disposed on the substrate; a control circuit disposed on the substrate; and a transparent and flexible protective layer encapsulating the electric field sensor and the control circuit. The electric field sensor includes a transmitter electrode; one or more receiver electrodes; and dielectric layer arranged between the transmitter electrode and receiver electrodes. The control circuit is connected to the electric field sensor and configured to: drive the transmitter electrode to transmit a reference signal to establish a quasi-static electrical near field; and process one or more measurement signals received by the one or more receiver electrodes respectively, each measurement signal is indicative of a distortion of the quasi-static electrical near field due to proximity of an object.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A transparent and flexible electronic skin with three-dimensional sensing capability, comprising:
a transparent and flexible substrate; a transparent and flexible electric field sensor disposed on the substrate and comprising:
a transparent and flexible transmitter electrode;
one or more transparent and flexible receiver electrodes; and
a transparent and flexible dielectric layer disposed between the transmitter electrode and the one or more receiver electrodes;
a control circuit disposed on the substrate and connected to the electric field sensor; and a transparent and flexible protective layer encapsulating the electric field sensor and the control circuit; and wherein the control circuit is configured to:
drive the transmitter electrode to transmit a reference signal to establish a quasi-static electrical near field around the electric field sensor; and
process one or more measurement signals received by the one or more receiver electrodes respectively, each measurement signal is indicative of a distortion of the quasi-static electrical near field due to proximity of an object to a corresponding receiver electrode; and
wherein the transparent and flexible transmitter and receiver electrodes are made of a conductive transparent gel.

2 . The transparent and flexible electronic skin according to claim 1 , wherein the one or more receiver electrodes include:
a central receiver electrode positioned at a central region of the electric field sensor; and four peripheral receiver electrodes positioned at four peripheral regions of the electric filed sensor respectively.

3 . The transparent and flexible electronic skin according to claim 1 , wherein the transparent and flexible substrate are made of polydimethylsiloxane.

4 . The transparent and flexible electronic skin according to claim 1 , wherein the transparent and flexible protective layer are made of polydimethylsiloxane.

5 . The transparent and flexible electronic skin according to claim 1 , wherein the transparent and flexible dielectric layer is made of polydimethylsiloxane.

6 . The transparent and flexible electronic skin according to claim 1 , wherein the conductive transparent gel contains sodium ions.

7 . The transparent and flexible electronic skin according to claim 1 , wherein the control circuit comprises:
a signal driver configured to drive the transmitter electrode to transmit the reference signal; and an analogy-to-digital converter configured to convert the one or more measurement signals to one or more digital signals respectively.

8 . The transparent and flexible electronic skin according to claim 7 , wherein the control circuit further comprises a microprocessor configured to:
process the one or more digital signals to calculate one or more distances of the object relative to the one or more receiver electrodes respectively; and analyse the one or more calculated distances to determine a position/gesture data of the object.

9 . The transparent and flexible electronic skin according to claim 8 , the control circuit further comprises a wireless communication unit configured to send the position/gesture data to a remote device.

10 . The transparent and flexible electronic skin according to claim 9 , wherein the distance of the object relative to each of the one or more receiver electrode is calculated by the processor based on a least squares multilateration algorithm.

11 . The transparent and flexible electronic skin according to claim 1 , further comprising
a lithium-ion battery for supplying power to the control unit; and a wireless charging unit configured to receive electromagnetic energy and convert the received electromagnetic energy into DC voltage to charge the lithium-ion battery.

12 . A method for fabricating a transparent and flexible electronic skin, comprising:
moulding a transparent and flexible material to form a patterned transparent and flexible substrate; dispensing a first conductive transparent gel on the patterned transparent and flexible substrate to form a transmitter electrode; forming a control circuit on the patterned transparent and flexible substrate; moulding the transparent and flexible material to form a patterned transparent and flexible dielectric layer; dispensing a second conductive transparent gel on the patterned transparent and flexible dielectric layer to form one or more receiver electrodes; attaching the dielectric layer on the substrate such that the transmitter electrode is spaced apart from the one or more receiver electrodes through the dielectric layer to form an electric filed sensor; and encapsulating the control circuit and the electric field sensor with the transparent and flexible material.

13 . The method according to claim 12 , wherein the control circuit is formed on the patterned transparent and flexible substrate by:
transfer printing a conductive trace pattern from a donor substrate to the patterned transparent and flexible substrate; and attaching electronic components on the patterned transparent and flexible substrate to form the control circuit.

14 . The method according to claim 12 , wherein each of the first and second the conductive transparent gels is prepared by:
dissolving sodium chloride, citric acid, sodium citrate and glycerol in deionized water to form a first solution; and dissolving gelatin powder in the first solution to form the conductive transparent gel.

Assignees

• Univ City Hong Kong

Inventors

• Yu Xinge
• Zhou Jingkun
• Li Jian
• Jia Huiling

Classifications

• B25J13/087

  for sensing other physical parameters, e.g. electrical or chemical properties · CPC title

• B25J19/005 Primary

  using batteries, e.g. as a back-up power source · CPC title

• B25J13/006

  by means of a wireless system for controlling one or several manipulators · CPC title

• A61L27/60

  Materials for use in artificial skin · CPC title

• B25J13/081

  Touching devices, e.g. pressure-sensitive · CPC title