Accepted Manuscript

Title: Piezoresistive Stretchable Strain Sensors with Human

Machine Interface Demonstrations

Authors: Yichuan Wu, Ilbey Karakurt, Levent Beker,

Yoshihiro Kubota, Renxiao Xu, Kong Yin Ho, Shilong Zhao,
Junwen Zhong, Min Zhang, Xiaohao Wang, Liwei Lin

PII: S0924-4247(18)30039-6
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sna.2018.05.036
Reference: SNA 10797

To appear in: Sensors and Actuators A

Received date: 9-1-2018

Revised date: 9-5-2018
Accepted date: 19-5-2018

Please cite this article as: Yichuan W, Karakurt I, Beker L, Kubota Y, Renxiao X, Ho KY,
Zhao S, Zhong J, Zhang M, Wang X, Lin L, Piezoresistive Stretchable Strain Sensors
with Human Machine Interface Demonstrations, Sensors and Actuators: A. Physical
(2018), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sna.2018.05.036

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Piezoresistive Stretchable Strain Sensors with Human Machine Interface Demonstrations

Yichuan Wu*, Ilbey Karakurt, Levent Beker, Yoshihiro Kubota, Renxiao Xu, Kong Yin Ho, Shilong
Zhao, Junwen Zhong, Min Zhang*, Xiaohao Wang, and Liwei Lin

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Prof. L. Lin
Berkeley Sensor and Actuator Center

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Department of Mechanical Engineering
University of California
Berkeley, CA 94720, USA

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Prof. X. Wang
Tsinghua-Berkeley Shenzhen Institute
Graduate School at Shenzhen, Tsinghua University
Shenzhen, 518055, China

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[*] Prof. M. Zhang, Corresponding-Author
Graduate School at Shenzhen, Tsinghua University
Shenzhen, 518055, China N
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[email protected]
Y. Wu, S. Zhao
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Tsinghua-Berkeley Shenzhen Institute, Tsinghua University
Shenzhen, 518055, China
I. Karakurt, R. Xu, K. Ho, Dr. J. Zhong
Berkeley Sensor and Actuator Center
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Department of Mechanical Engineering

University of California
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Berkeley, CA 94720, USA

Dr. L. Beker
Department of Chemical Engineering
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Materials Science and Engineering, Stanford University

Stanford, CA 94305, USA
Y. Kubota
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Department of Electrical and Electronic Information Engineering

Toyohashi University of Technology, 441-8580, Japan
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GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT

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Highlights:
We advance the technologies of flexible strain sensors in the following aspects:

 a high yield manufacturing process based on laser induced graphite;

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 high sensitivity (gauge factor 37 and pressure sensitivity 0.088kPa-1) devices using
serpentine electrode designs with thin thickness (200μm);
 high dynamic responses to mimic the human skins in the range of 5-400Hz;
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 conformable attachment for human machine interface demonstrations, including biological

pulse signals and robotic gripper manipulations.

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Abstract:

Stretchable strain sensors are important elements in flexible and skin-mountable electronics

typically fabricated using semiconductor materials in cleanroom-based manufacturing processes.

This work demonstrates piezoresistive strain sensors with both strain and pressure sensing

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capabilities by a cost-effective and versatile process utilizing a laser patterning, graphite

conversion, and polymeric transfer process. The resulting sensing systems exhibit high gauge

factor of 37 and pressure sensitivity of 0.088kPa-1 with high sustainable strain up to 70%. These

exceptional performances are explained and observed by deforming the sensor under an in-situ

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SEM to show self-healing characteristics of films under large deformations. The highly sensitive

strain sensors have been shown in human interface demonstrations, such as measuring the

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physiological signal of the human pulses, finger pressure and bending of fingers as well as assisting

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a robotic arm for gripping and releasing operations.

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Keywords: strain sensors, piezoresistive, stretchable electronics, human machine interface.

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1. Introduction
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Flexible and deformable strain sensors are important components for applications in the field

of human machine interfaces (HMI)1-6. Compared with conventional rigid sensing elements,
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flexible and stretchable sensors that can be conformably mounted to HMI systems are attractive
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for various fields such as entertainment7-9, medicine10-11 and consumer electronics1, 11-14
. For
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example, flexible electronics systems, such as strain sensors, thermal sensors, humidity sensors,

soft robots and energy harvesters have all been reported15-24. Among these, stretchable strain and
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pressure sensors can be vital in two major application areas: (1) electronic skins to detect physical

force and/or pressure to emulate human skins1, 11, 25; and (2) assistance in the robotic manipulations
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for feedback controls2, 26.

Several prior works have utilized the piezoresistive effect for flexible strain sensors by

depositing conductive materials, such as conductive nanowires27-28, carbon nanotubes3, 5, 29

,

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graphene or graphene oxide29-32, and polymer nanofibers33-34 onto a polymer substrate. These

piezoresistive strain sensors have gauge factors ranging from 2 to 600, pressure sensitivities of

0.001kPa-1 to 10kPa-1 and elongation limit of 0.015%-15.5%10-12, 25. Recently, there are some

flexible resistive strain sensors with good performances made from simple fabrication methods20,

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35-36
. In 2014, Lin et al. reported a simple, effective approach to produce patterned porous graphene

electrodes using a CO2 laser to irradiate commercial polymer films37. Based on this laser induced

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graphite (LIG) technique, several flexible devices, including supercapacitors38, UV39, and strain

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sensors9, 40-42 have been reported.

In this work, we advance the technologies of flexible strain sensors in the following aspects:

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(1) a high yield manufacturing process based on LIG; (2) high sensitivity (gauge factor 37 and

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pressure sensitivity 0.088kPa-1) devices using serpentine electrode designs with thin thickness
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(200µm); (3) high dynamic responses to mimic the human skins in the range of 5-400Hz1, 41-42;
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and (4) conformable attachment for HMI demonstrations, including biological pulse signals and

robotic gripper manipulations. As such, our strain sensors could be integrated with future wearable
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electronics such as artificial skins and robotic systems.

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2. Results and Discussions

The head-mounted sets used in virtual reality (VR) applications are popular for video games,
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military applications and medical training programs. In additional to the visual and audio effects,

feedback sensing responses from strain sensors could drastically improve the current systems.
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Figure 1a conceptually depicts the proposed skin-mountable strain sensors together with a VR

system to provide various functions, including biological signal feedbacks, such as finger gesture

recognitions, finger pressure sensing, and biological pulse monitoring.

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 Figure 1b illustrates the fabrication processes of the strain sensors. First, a 50µm-thick

commercial Kapton tape (Nulink inc., 25µm of silicone adhesive and 25µm of polyimide) is

attached to a glass substrate. Porous graphite structures are patterned by the direct writing of CO2

laser on the polyimide (PI) film. For the strain sensors and pressure sensors, we utilize the

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serpentine sensing structures as the sensing path as shown in Figure S1a. In the serpentine structure,

line segments are connected in series, such that the resistance change in each segment can

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contribute accumulatively. The main geometric parameters, such as the period of the serpentine

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structure, length, width of each segment have been designed as listed in Table S1. For the prototype

sensors, a 3-cycle serpentine structure is chosen for the strain sensors to accommodate the large

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deformation and an 8-cycle serpentine structure is used for the pressure for good sensitivity. Figure

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S1b shows the good flexibility of the sensors, including repeatedly twisting and folding.
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The carbonization process of the PI film under the laser irradiation process has been modeled
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by a photothermal mechanism, owing to the long wavelength (~10.6µm) and relatively long pulses

(~14µs) of the CO2 laser (Universal inc.)37, 42. The PI film can absorb the incident laser energy,
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convert it to heat and induce localized heating to cause the carbonization of polyimide39 by
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breaking the chemical bonds (such as the C—O, C=O and N—C) to form patterned traces37. Figure
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S1c shows an SEM image featuring the porous morphology of graphite in the laser-induced

patterns. The carbonized and porous structure contains multilayer graphene flakes40 to be easily
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detached from the PI substrate because of the lack of strong physical and chemical bonds. Figure

S2a-d show the morphologies of laser induced graphite on the PI tape under 36% to 18% of the
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full laser power of 60 watts. Under high laser power for more than 26% of full scale (Figure S2a,

b), micro-scale “hairs” can be formed, while under low laser power for less than 18% of full scale

(Figure S2d), graphite structures are not continuous. The laser power in between the high and low

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experimental cases can make good material conversions (Figure S2c) with relatively well arranged

morphology.

After the laser conversion process, either liquid polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) or Ecoflex

solutions are poured to cover the LIG porous structures. Afterwards, the PDMS or Ecoflex film

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with attached graphitic structures is cured and peeled off from the original PI substrate. Figure S3

shows that the transferring process can leave some residual graphitic flakes on the PI substrate.

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SEM image (Figure S1d) of the transferred graphite on PDMS film shows many tiny spheres

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(about the same sizes of holes in Figure S1c) as the PDMS solution is filling the voids in the LIG

structures and duplicated their shapes during the curing and transferring processes. The cross-

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sectional view in FigureS1e shows the transferred film has a graphitic layer of 100µm in thickness.

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Figures S4a-d show the top views of graphite-PDMS composites formed at different laser powers
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levels and Figures S5a-d show the cross-sectional views of the corresponding results of Figures
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S4-d.

The highly stretchable polymers help keeping the conducting graphitic flakes together under
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large deformation and provide possible self-healing mechanisms for mechanical cracks generated
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in the graphitic layers. For example, Figures 1c and 1d are transferred films made of PDMS-
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graphite and Ecoflex-graphite, respectively and larger islands and cracks are more visible on the

surface of Ecoflex-graphite as they are likely formed during the mechanical peeling and transfer
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process. Under an external mechanical stretch, the electrically conductive islands on the film may

separate and the cracks may be expended as shown in the Omni-probe (TED PELLA, Inc.) in-situ
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SEM experiment (Figure 1e) after gently pushing the polymer-graphite composite (Step I). Under

small external perturbations, the gap is extended visibly (Step II). By increasing the perturbation

force, the gap is further enlarged and new cracks are formed (Step III). When the probe is retracted

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to its initial position, the newly generated cracks are self-healed (Step IV), while the old cracks

reduce their sizes approaching their initial states. These deformation characteristics are captured

in a video (Movie S1) to visually illustrate the recovery and healing of the resistance changes in

graphite. The significant crack openings result in large resistance changes and high sensitivity

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(large gauge factor), while the self-healing nature of the cracks helps the recovery of the sensing

system.

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Figure 2a compares the resistance change versus applied strain for Ecoflex-based (blue

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symbols) and PDMS-based (red symbols) devices up to about 70-80% of strain, respectively.

These ranges are larger than those of other piezoresistive sensors made of graphene29 and

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conductive nanowires 20. If the applied strain is further increased, the resistance in both sensors

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increases drastically as the conductive graphite islands are completely isolated. Results show the
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prototype PDMS-based device has a stable gauge factor (GF=(ΔR/Ro)/(ΔL/Lo)) of 37, whereas
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the Ecoflex-based device has a gauge factor of 40 for small elongations (0~30%), 186 for mid-

range elongations (30%~60%), and 362 for large elongations (60%~70%). Figure 2b shows the
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optical photos of a prototype device with 0%, 30% and 60% length increments, respectively. A
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3D-printed structure is used to characterize the resistance changes under various bending radii
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(Figure 2c) by attaching the strain sensors on the surface of the 3D structure with different bending

radii of 1.0, 2.0 and 2.5 cm. When the bending radius changes from infinite (i.e., flat surface) to
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1.0 cm (i. e., radius of a thumb or finger), the resistance increases by 400% for the PDMS-based

sensor and 2000% for Ecoflex-based sensor. As shown in Figure S6, resistance changes of strain
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sensors were measured by loading to and unloading from elongation of 0, 20%, 30%, 40% and

50%, respectively. The hysteresis can be observed when stretching the strain sensors. The

hysteresis is mainly caused by the viscoelastic nature of polymer substrates and the interaction

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between graphite and polymer. To evaluate the repeatability and stability of the strain sensor, a

test of 1000 cycles of 20% applied strain is conducted at a frequency of 1Hz. For the PDMS-based

sensor (Figure 2d), the peak resistance changes decrease about 10% after the first ten cycles and

stabilize afterwards. The total resistance change (measured at the released state) is less than 5%

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after 1000 cycles. It is observed that the peak resistance changes in the Ecoflex-based sensors are

not as stable as PDMS-based sensors (Figure 2e). A comparison of the performance with some

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reported resistive strain sensors is shown in Table S23, 43-46.

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Several HMI experiments are conducted using the prototype sensors. Figure 2f shows angle

measurement results from human finger bending movements at the joint of the index finger using

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a PDMS-based sensor. Under a constant current of 10µA from a potentiometer (GAMRY

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Instrument), the changes in potential are recorded by 15-degree increment, from 0 to 90 degrees
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and the sensor shows good recovery capabilities after going through a full 90-degree bending cycle.
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On the other hand, an Ecoflex-based sensor is used for human pressure measurements and the

static pressure characterization test is shown Figure 3a by applying a rectangular press load of
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0.01N (minimum detectable pressure) at 1s intervals with 12Ω change in resistance. As such, the
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sensitivity of the pressure sensor is estimated as 0.088kPa-1, which is comparable to prior reports11.
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The sensitivity of a resistive pressure sensor is generally defined as S=(ΔR/R)/P, where P is the

applied normal pressure, and ΔR/R indicates the relative change in resistance. The sensitivities of
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pressure sensor can be obtained as the slopes of Figure 3a, which are characterized by two regions

with different values. In the low pressure range under 4kPa, a sensitivity of 0.088kPa-1 is obtained
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while in the high pressure range above 4kPa, the sensitivity decreases to 0.033kPa-1. Figure 3a also

exhibits the hysteresis curves for the relative resistance change under different pressure (both

loading and unloading). Figure S7 shows a very thin and compliant (~200µm in total thickness)

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prototype sensor mounted on the index fingertip, measure pressure change up to 12kPa. A

comparison of the performance with some reported resistive pressure sensors is shown in Table

S347-50.

Furthermore, the voltage change in the sensor resulting from the human pulses is recorded

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under a constant current of 10µA. The serpentine structure is placed on the radial artery to detect

the beating pulses. Figure 3b displays the measured arterial pulse waveforms in a period of 8

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seconds (left) with a magnified view of the last cycle (right). The three peaks of a pulse, namely

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the systolic (Ps), the inflection (Pi) and the dicrotic peak (Pd) can all be clearly identified. The

arterial waveform contains abundant physiological information, and can be significantly affected

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by the physiological conditions of the human cardiovascular systems.

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One important requirement for HMI applications is the dynamic range of the sensor. A
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commercial actuator (Novasentis Inc.) is utilized to test the dynamic responses of the sensor as
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shown in Figure 3c. The actuator can vibrate from 1 to 400Hz, which covers the full touch sensing

frequency range of human neural receptors1. It is observed that the resistance changes of the
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prototype sensor decrease as the actuating frequency increases. Figure 3d and supplementary
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Movie S2 show the responses (characterized by the amount of resistance) at a few selected
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frequencies and the resistance responses are almost the same under for low driving frequencies (1

~ 5Hz) but gradually decrease as the actuating frequency increases. When the driving frequency
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is high (e.g., 100 ~ 400Hz), the resistance responses decreases significantly (to only 10% of those

at low frequencies). The likely explanations are: (1) the displacement of actuator decreases as the
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driving frequency increases (verified by Laser Doppler Vibrometer measurements), and (2) the

cracks cannot open/recover fast enough at high frequency.

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 Another HMI test is performed by attaching the pressure sensor to the gripper of a robot hand

(OWI Robotic Inc., material: plastic) as shown in Figure 4a. When the gripper grabs an object, the

strain induced by the applied force can be monitored via the resistance changes of the sensor. This

measurement is then fed back and compared with a pre-set threshold (Figure. 4b). If the force is

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lower than the pre-set value, the physical engagement between the objects and the robotic gripper

can be increased. When the force is higher than preset value, the grip can lift the object with high

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enough frictional force. The process is monitored in real time by a data acquisition (DAQ) system

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(NI USB 6342, National Instrument, USA). This system then applies different analog voltages

(based on different force readings) to the motor driver circuit (L9110S H Bridge Motor Driver,

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Atomic Market). Here, five stages of an entire manipulation process are presented (Figure 4c and

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Supplementary Movie S3), with the blue continues-line indicating the real-time resistance
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measured by the sensor, and the red dashed-line corresponding to the preset force value. In stage
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I, the two fingers do not make any contact with the object. As the fingers apply normal force on

the object, the resistance increases (Stage II). When the normal force exceeds the preset value, the
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force is kept at an appropriate level (Stage III). When the robotic arm lifts the object up at the 13-
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second point (Stage IV), the resistance increases and drops before stabilizing as the sensor is
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experiencing a shear force due to the gravity weight of the object. The sudden addition of the shear

force stretches the sensor to results in the increase of strain and the sensor recovers afterwards
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(self-healing) with decreased resistance reading as the shear force in the direction of gravity may

help healing part of the cracks in the sensor. In Stage V, the resistance of the sensor returns to its
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initial value with small drift after the object is released from the gripper. In this manipulation

process, the sensor can prevent breaking objects by preventing overly excessively applied force,

with real-time force readings for the control of the robot operations.

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3. Conclusions

In conclusion, stretchable and conformable strain sensors with high sensitivity are reported

with human interface interaction demonstrations. These piezoresistive sensors can be fabricated

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by combining laser-induced, serpentine-shaped graphite structures with elastomeric substrate

(PDMS or Ecoflex). We further demonstrate the changes of resistance in such sensors result from

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the extension and generation of cracks among the conductive islands with potential good self-

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healing capabilities. Large gauge factors and high elongation limits (for strain sensors) and good

pressure sensitivity (for pressure sensors) have been achieved for potential applications in

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stretchable skin-mounted electronic systems for in human machine interface operations.

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Experiment Section
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The uncured PDMS (Sylgard 184, mixed ratio 10:1, the ratio can be tailored to get PDMS films

with different Young’s moduli) is poured onto the patterned sample and the air is evacuated for 5
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minutes by a vacuum pump. Bubbles can be seen during the evacuation because it allows PDMS
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to fill up the pores in the patterned graphite structures. The thickness of the PDMS film is
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controlled by the amount of poured PDMS and the rotation speed of spin-coater. After curing in

an oven at 60oC for 1 hour, the cured PDMS layer is peeled off by a tweezer from the commercial
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PI tape and the laser-induced graphite layer is transferred onto the PDMS film. Then, conductive

wires are bonded onto the pads of the sensors with silver paste for electrical connections. Finally,
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to protect the serpentine graphite patterns from contamination when making contact with an object,

the graphite side is sealed with another thin PDMS layer by spin-coating. The PDMS can also be

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replaced by Ecoflex 00-30 (Smooth-on inc.) which can provide a lower Young’s Modulus and a

more elastic substrate for the serpentine patterns.

Acknowledgements

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This work is supported in part by the Berkeley Sensor and Actuator Center (BSAC), an

NSF/Industry/University Research Cooperation Center. Mr. Y. Wu is supported by a scholarship

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from the China Scholarship Council (CSC) and Tsinghua-Berkeley Shenzhen Institute (TBSI),

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Tsinghua University. The authors also acknowledge the support from the National High

Technology Research and Development Plan of China (2015AA043505), the Shenzhen

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Fundamental Research Funds (JCYJ20150831192244849), Shenzhen Technology Research

Funds (JSGG20170414094227487), N
Shenzhen Fundamental Research Funds
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(JCYJ20150630170146829), and Natural Science Foundation of Guangdong Province
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(2016A030313022).
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Author Biography

Yichuan Wu received a B.S. degree in mechanical engineering from China Agricultural University,
Beijing, China in 2013. He started his master degree in the Department of Mechanical Engineering
in Tsinghua University, Beijing, China in 2013 and then joined Tsinghua-Berkeley Shenzhen
Institute, Tsinghua University, as a Ph.D. student in 2015. He is now working with Professor Liwei
Lin at University of California, Berkeley and Professor Xiaohao Wang at Tsinghua University.

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His research interests include flexible sensors and actuators systems.

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Ilbey Karakurt is a Ph.D. candidate and graduate student researcher working with Professor Liwei
Lin in the Mechanical Engineering Department at University of California, Berkeley. He received
his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Bilkent University, and his M.S. in Mechanical

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Engineering from U.C. Berkeley. His research focuses on 3D printed devices and microfluidics.

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Levent Beker is a postdoctoral researcher at Stanford University working with Professor Zhenan
Bao. He received B.S and M.S. degrees from Middle East Technical University in 2010 and 2013,
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respectively, and Ph.D. degree in mechanical engineering from the University of California,
Berkeley, CA in 2017. His research interests include harsh environment sensors, biomedical
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microsystems, and energy harvesting.
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Yoshihiro Kubota completed his B.S. in 2013 in the Department of Electrical and Electronic
Engineering, Toyohashi University of Technology, Japan and M.S. in the Department of Electrical
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and Electronic Information Engineering, Toyohashi University of Technology, Japan. From 2016
to 2017, he was a visiting student in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of
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California, Berkeley. He is pursuing his Ph.D. in the Department of Electrical and Electronic
Information Engineering, Toyohashi University of Technology, Japan
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Renxiao Xu is a Ph.D. candidate and graduate student researcher working with Professor Liwei
Lin in the Mechanical Engineering Department at University of California, Berkeley. He received
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his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Huazhong University of Science and Technology and
his M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Northwestern University. His research interests include
3D printed devices and structures.
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Kong Yin Ho received his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering at University of California, Berkeley.
During his undergraduate studies, he was an undergraduate researcher in Professor Liwei Lin’s
Lab. He is currently a MEMS engineer in Mirrorcle Technologies, Inc.

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Shilong Zhao received his B.S. degree and M.S in materials science from Wuhan University of
Technology, Wuhan, China in 2012 and 2015, respectively. Then he joined Tsinghua-Berkeley
Shenzhen Institute, Tsinghua University, as a Ph.D. student. His research interests include the
growth and characterizations of novel two-dimensional transition metal dichalcogenide optical
materials.

Junwen Zhong is a postdoctoral researcher at University of California, Berkeley working with

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Professor Liwei Lin. He received B.S and Ph.D. degrees from Huazhong University of Science
and Technology in 2011 and 2016, respectively. His research interests include energy harvesting
and flexible strain sensors.

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Min Zhang received the Ph.D. degree in mechanical engineering from Dalian University of
Technology in 2006. He joined in Graduate School at Shenzhen, Tsinghua University in 2012 and
is an associate professor in Tsinghua University. His research interests include wearable devices,
micro-fabrications and microfluidics.

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Xiaohao Wang received the B.S. and Ph.D. degrees in mechanical engineering from Tsinghua
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University in 1994 and 1999, respectively. He joined Tsinghua University in 1998 and is a
professor in Tsinghua University. His research interests include MEMS technology and wearable
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devices.
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Liwei Lin received a B.S. degree in power mechanical engineering from National Tsing Hua
University, Hsinchu, Taiwan, in 1986, and the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in mechanical engineering
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from the University of California, Berkeley in 1991 and 1993, respectively. He joined UC Berkeley
in 1999 and is a professor in the Mechanical Engineering Department and co-director of the
Berkeley Sensor and Actuator Center. His research interests include MEMS/NEMS devices for
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energy and biomedical applications.

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Figure 1. The stretchable strain sensors with human machine interface demonstrations. a) The strain
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sensors together with a VR system, including several finger bending strain sensors, a finger pressure sensor

and a pulse sensor9. b) Main fabrication processes: attachment of the PI tape onto a glass substrate, CO2
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laser patterning on PI tape, PDMS or Ecoflex pouring onto the laser induced graphite, transferring graphite

from PI tape to PDMS or Ecoflex substrate (Scale bar, 1 cm). c) Scanning electron microscopy (SEM)
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images of cracks on PDMS-graphite film (Scale bar, 100 µm). Inset: a detailed view of cracks (Scale bar,

20 µm). d) SEM images of cracks on Ecoflex-graphite sensors (Scale bar, 100 µm). Inset: a detailed view
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of cracks (Scale bar, 20 µm). e) Sensor’s morphology under tensile strain: steps 1 to 4 record the crack

extension, generation and recovery (Scale bar, 10 µm).

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Figure 2. Performance of the prototype strain sensor. a) Resistance change versus applied strain for

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PDMS- and Ecoflex-based sensors, insets: the status of cracks from strain free (left) to high strain (right)
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conditions (Scale bar, 40 µm). b) A strain sensors under different elongations of 0%, 30% and 60%,

respectively. c) Resistance changes with respect to bending curvatures. d) A 1000-cycle experiment under
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repeated 20% strain for a PDMS-based strain sensor. e) A 1000-cycle experiment under repeated 20% strain
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for an Ecoflex-based strain sensor. f) The finger bending experiment with different angles.
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Figure 3. Experimental results. a) Relative resistance change of the pressure sensor resulting from

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consecutive linear loading and unloading cycles. b) Measurements of the arterial pulse waveforms for 10
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second, the inset shows a close-up view of one cycle with 3 typical peaks: systolic (Ps), inflection (Pi) and

dicrotic (Pd) peaks9. c) Responses of the sensor on a commercial actuator (Novasentis Inc.) from 1 to 400Hz.
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d) Dynamic responses of the sensor from low to high frequencies.

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Figure 4. An application demonstration of the strain sensor in a robotic hand system. a) A strain sensor is

attached on the surface of a gripper of a robotic hand. b) Control algorithm for the gripping operation. c)
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Recorded sensor responses (blue line) after filtering out excessive signals (white color lines in the bottom
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figures) with five steps from I to V. The red line indicates the threshold of the resistance for suitable force

for lifting operation.

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