Development of knitted capacitive pressure sensor with spacer fabric structure

A five-layer weft-knit with a spacer structure is proposed as a capacitive sensor. The two cotton yarn outer layers provide insulation. The two inner layers that form the parallel electrode plates are separated by using a compressible spacer layer. Four samples with different monofilament yarns in the spacer layer are produced and evaluated. The results show that the pressure sensing range and sensitivity of the fabric sensor vary based on content and thickness of the spacer yarns. The fabric sensor is constructed by using a double-bed knitting machine as a novel means of textile sensor development.