• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.33 no.1
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• pp.7-11
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• 2024

Soft-pressure sensors have numerous applications in soft robotics, biomedical devices, and wearable smart devices. Herein, we present a highly sensitive electronic skin device with an isotropic wrinkled pressure sensor. A conductive ink for soft pressure sensors is produced by a solution process using polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS), poly 3-hexylthiophene (P3HT), carbon black, and chloroform as the solvents. P3HT provides high reproducibility and conductivity by improving the ink dispersibility. The conductivity of the ink is optimized by adjusting the composition of the carbon black and PDMS. Soft lithography is used to fabricate a conductive elastic structure with an isotropic wrinkled structure. Two conductive elastic structures with an isotropic wrinkle structure is stacked to develop a pressure sensor, and it is confirmed that the isotropic wrinkle structure is more sensitive to pressure than when two elastic structures with an anisotropic wrinkle structure are overlapped. Specifically, the pressure sensor fabricated with an isotropic wrinkled structure can detect extremely low pressures (1.25 Pa). Additionally, the sensor has a high sensitivity of 15.547 kpa^-1 from 1.25 to 2500 Pa and a linear sensitivity of 5.15 kPa^-1 from 2500 Pa to 25 kPa.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.121-126
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• 2012

Piezoresistive type contact force sensor array is fabricated by (111) Silicon bulk micromachining for continuous blood pressure monitoring. Length and width of the unit sensor structure is $200{\mu}m$ and $190{\mu}m$, respectively. The gap between sensing elements is only $10{\mu}m$. To achieve wafer level packaging, the sensor structure is capped by PDMS soft cap using wafer molding and bonding process with $10{\mu}m$ alignment precision. The resistance change over contact force was measured to verify the feasibility of the proposed sensor scheme. The maximum measurement range and resolution is 900 mm Hg and 0.57 mm Hg, respectively.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.31-38
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• 2023

Three-dimensional (3D) micro/nanostructures based on soft elastomers have received extensive attention in recent years, owing to their potential and advanced applicability. Designing and fabricating 3D micro/nanostructures are crucial for applications in diverse engineering fields, such as sensors, harvesting devices, functional surfaces, and adhesive patches. However, because of their structural complexity, fabricating soft-elastomer-based 3D micro/nanostructures with a low cost and simple process remains a challenge. Bio-inspired designs that mimic natural structures, or replicate their micro/nanostructure surfaces, have greatly benefited in terms of low-cost fabrication, scalability, and easy control of geometrical parameters. This review highlights recent advances in 3D micro/nanostructures inspired by nature for diverse potential and advanced applications, including flexible pressure sensors, energy-harvesting devices based on triboelectricity, superhydrophobic/-philic surfaces, and dry/wet adhesive patches.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.363-367
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• 2003

Contact area and pressure are important factors which directly influence a life of knee implants. Since implant's mechanical functions should be experimentally evaluated for clinical use, many studies using a knee simulator and a pressure sensor system have been conducted. However it has not been reported that the contact pressure's distribution of a knee implant motion was estimated in real-time during a gate cycle. Therefore. the objective of this study was to analyze the contact pressure distribution for the motion of a joint using the knee simulator and I-scan sensor system. For this purpose, we developed a force-controlled dynamic knee simulator to evaluate the mechanical performance of artificial knee joint. This simulator includes a function of a soft tissue and has a 4-degree-of-freedom to represent an axial compressive load and a flexion angle. As axial compressive force and a flexion angle of the femoral component can be controlled by PC program. The pressure is also measured from I-scan system and simulator to visualize the pressure distribution on the joint contact surfaces under loading condition during walking cycle. The compressive loading curve was the major cause for the contact pressure distribution and its center move in a cycle as to a flexion angie. In conclusion, this system can be used to evaluate to the geometric interaction of femoral and tibial design due to a measured mechanical function such as a contact pressure, contact area and a motion of a loading center.

• Ceramist
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.4-16
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• 2019

Recently, wearable sensors have received considerable attention in a variety of research fields and industries as the importance of wearable healthcare systems, soft robotics and bio-integrated devices increased. However, expensive and complex processes are hindering the commercialization of wearable sensors. Nanoparticle presents some of solutions to these problems as its adjustable for processability and tunable properties. In this paper, the recent development of nanoparticle based pressure and strain sensors was reviewed, and a discussion on their strategies to overcome the conventional limitation and operating principles is presented.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Gas
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• v.2 no.3
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• pp.49-53
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• 1998

It takes quite a long time for an analyzer, such as gas chromatography, to measure a bulk property of a system, which prevents on-line measurements. Also, the cost of installation and maintenance is very high. Consequently, some other means is needed for on-line measurements of properties and the development of soft sensors based on process variables like temperature and pressure is of great interest. In the field of gas industry, the development of a soft sensor which makes indirect on-line measurements of gas compositions and flow rate, is in progress. In this paper, we proposed a hybrid inner model PLS which improved the prediction performance by taking into account the data structure, as an empirical modeling algorithm. When applied to a design of a soft sensor of a distillation tower, the hybrid inner model PLS showed better prediction performance than other methods.

• Prospectives of Industrial Chemistry
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.3-18
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• 2018

전자피부(Electronic skin)는 외부 환경과의 상호작용하는 인간 피부의 기능을 대체하여 외부 자극 신호를 전기적 신호로 변환하는 센서들로 이루어진 인공피부로써, 최근 인간과 전자기기 간의 인터페이스에 대한 관심이 급증하면서 이에 대한 많은 연구들이 진행되고 있다. 그중에서도 피부의 주된 기능인 외부 물리적 자극을 인지하는 촉각을 모방하는 촉각센서는 많은 발전을 거쳐 왔으며, 한계를 극복하고자 다양한 연구들이 진행되고 있다. 촉각센서는 압력, 인장, 굽힘과 같은 물리적 자극에 반응하며, 물리적 자극 신호를 아날로그 및 디지털 신호로 변환하여 인지하는 연구들이 폭넓게 개발되고 있다. 또한, 소자의 구조에 따라 물리적 자극을 전달하는 다양한 변환 방식들이 있으며, 최근에는 각 신호 변환 방식의 민감도, 반응속도, 자극 인지 범위 등의 한계점을 극복하고, 소재의 기계적 물성을 향상시키기 위해 소재의 변형을 주거나 생체의 기관 구조 및 외부 자극 인지 원리 등을 모사한 연구들이 많은 관심을 받고 있다. 본 기고에서는 이러한 촉각센서의 물리적 자극 신호 변환 방식과 소재 변형 및 생체 모사를 통한 다양한 연구들을 소개하고자 하며, 이를 통하여 촉각센서의 나아갈 방향을 제시하고자 한다.

• The Transactions of The Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers
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• v.64 no.6
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• pp.940-947
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• 2015

A Sitting posture is a very important issue for moderns who is mostly sedentary. Also, a wrong sitting posture causes back-pain and spinal disease. Many researchers have been proposed numerous approaches that classifying and monitoring for a sitting posture. In this paper, we proposed a real-time sitting posture monitoring system that was developed to measure pressure distribution in the human body. The proposed system consists of a pressure sensing module (six pressure sensors), data acquisition and processing module, a communication module and a display module for an individual sitting posture monitoring. The developed monitoring system can classify into five sitting postures, such as a correct sitting, sitting on forward inclination, leaning back sitting, sitting with a right leg crossed and a left leg crossed. In addition, when a user deviates from the correct posture, an alarm function is activated. We selected two kinds of chairs, one is rigid material and fixed form, the other one is a soft material and can adjust the height of a chair. In the experiments, we observed appearance changes for subjects in consequence of a comparison between before the correction of posture and after the correction of posture when using the proposed system. The data from twenty four subjects has been classified with a proposed classifier, achieving an average accuracy of 83.85%, 94.56% when the rigid chair and the soft chair, respectively.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.213-218
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• 2000

Pressure distributions of the soft tissue are valuable for understanding and diagnosing the disease characteristics due to the mechanical loading. Our system measures dynamic pressure distributions in real-time under the general PC environment, and analyzes various foot disorders. Main features of the developed system are as follows: (1) With the resistive pressure sensor matrix of 40${\times}$40 cells, the data is sent to the PC with the maximum sampling rate of 40 frames/sec. (2) For each frame, contact area, pressure and force are analyzed by graphic forms. Thus, various biomechanical parameters are easily determined at specific areas of interests. (3) A certain stance phase can be chosen for the analysis from the continuous walking, and the detailed biomechanical analysis can be done according to an arbitrary line dividing anterior/posterior or medial/lateral plantar areas. (4) The center of pressure (COP) is calculated and traced from the pressure distribution data, and thus the movement of the COP is monitored in detail. A few experiments revealed that our system successfully measured the dynamic plantar distribution during normal walking.

• Journal of IKEEE
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.249-256
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• 2022

The prosthetic leg is a device that performs walking instead of a amputated lower limb, and require a change in locomotion mode by providing the user's intention to respond to a discontinuous locomotion environment. Research has been conducted to detect the users' intentions through biomechanical features inside the socket that directly contacts the cut site in demand for natural locomotion mode changes without external control equipment. However, there is still a need for a sensor system that is suitable for the internal environment of the main body and socket of the cut site. Accordingly, this paper proposed a film-type sensor system that is suitable for the main body characteristics of the cut site, is not affected by the temperature and humidity conditions inside the socket, and is easy to manufacture in various sizes. The proposed sensor is manufactured base on Velostat film and takes into account the pressure measurement characteristics that vary with size. Through the experiment, the change in the internal pressure of the socket due to the intentional posture performance of the wearer was measured, and the possibility of detecting the intention to change the locomotion mode was confirmed.