PyzoFlex: a printed piezoelectric pressure sensing foil for human machine interfaces
Martin Zirkl, Gregor Scheipl, Barbara Stadlober, Paul Hartmann, Michael Haller, Christian Rendl, Patrick Greindl · Proceedings of SPIE, the International Society for Optical Engineering/Proceedings of SPIE · 2013
Ferroelectric material supports both pyro- and piezoelectric effects that can be used for sensing pressures on large, bended surfaces. We present PyzoFlex, a pressure-sensing input device that is based on a ferroelectric material (PVDF:TrFE). It is constructed by a sandwich structure of four layers that can easily be printed on any substrate. The PyzoFlex foil is sensitive to pressure- and temperature changes, bendable, energy-efficient, and it can easily be produced by a screen-printing routine. Even a hovering input-mode is feasible due to its pyroelectric effect. In this paper, we introduce this novel, fully printed input technology and discuss its benefits and limitations.