Polymer nanocomposites (PNCs) offer a compelling route to flexible, high-performance force and pressure sensing by embedding conductive nanoparticles within a polymer matrix, enabling piezoresistive and piezocapacitive responses under mechanical load. NanoSen's platform advances this approach through a proprietary force sensing impedance (FSI) technology that leverages the full frequency-dependent electrical behavior of custom-engineered PNC materials, rather than relying solely on DC resistance changes typical of conventional force-sensitive resistors (FSRs).
This presentation will detail the material science and measurement principles underlying the platform. The PNC sensors, typically realized as thin (~0.4 mm), flexible films based on medical-grade elastomers such as silicone with dispersed carbon-based nanoparticles, exhibit high sensitivity (down to ~0.01 N), wide dynamic range (up to hundreds of Newtons with overload tolerance), and excellent mechanical resilience, including recovery from compression without permanent deformation and operation across a broad temperature range.
Central to the technology is the impedance-based readout method, which probes changes in both resistive and capacitive values of the material's electrical response. This multi-parameter approach extracts richer information from microstructural rearrangements, contact interfaces, and viscoelastic effects under load, yielding superior long-term stability, reduced drift, better temperature compensation, and higher repeatability compared to purely resistive methods. The talk will cover the underlying physics, key material design parameters, and the proprietary electronics implementation that enables robust, absolute force measurements without frequent recalibration.
Performance characteristics will be illustrated with examples from single sensor and matrix configurations, highlighting real-time force mapping capabilities and integration potential. The discussion will emphasize technical advantages for demanding applications in soft robotics, industrial automation, wearables, and human-machine interfaces, while addressing opportunities in scalable system-level integration.
TLDR; This technology-focused overview will provide actionable insights into how PNC-based impedance sensing overcomes limitations of conventional force sensing technologies, such as force sensing resistors and strain gauges, and opens new design possibilities combining sensitivity and robustness in a thin force measurement technology.
