Physics

Fabrication

Pathology

Nanotechnology

Operating system

Optics

Pyramid (geometry)

Engineering

Dielectric

Acoustics

Materials science

Alternative medicine

Capacitive sensing

Electronic engineering

Layer (electronics)

Computer science

Pressure sensor

Optoelectronics

Medicine

Mechanical engineering

Advanced Functional Materials

There is an increasing demand for specialized pressure sensors in various applications. Previously, capacitive pressure sensors have been shown to have wide versatility in use, with a high degree of potential tuning possible through manipulating the geometry or material selection of the dielectric layer. However, in order to make sensors that are tunable and predictable, the design and fabrication method first needs to be developed. Presented here is an improved fabrication method to achieve tunable, consistent, and reproducible pressure sensors by using a pyramid microstructured dielectric layer along with a lamination layer. The as‐produced sensor performance is able to match predicted trends. Further, a simple model based on this system is developed and its efficacy is experimentally confirmed. Then, the model to predict a wide range of material and microstructure geometric properties prior to device fabrication is used to provide trends on sensor performance. Finally, it is demonstrated that the new method can be used to targetedly design a pressure sensor for a specific application—in vitro pulse sensing.

Rational Design of Capacitive Pressure Sensors Based on Pyramidal Microstructures for Specialized Monitoring of Biosignals