Flexible Capacitive UV Sensor for Future Wearables

UV radiation from the sun is the primary cause of skin cancer and warrants continuous monitoring to prevent excessive exposure. Accordingly, we present a wearable, capacitive UV sensor based on ZnO thin-film coated PVDF flexible strip, which is low-cost, lightweight, and easy to fabricate. Our proposed capacitive sensor can detect UV irradiance as low as 40 μW/cm
²
. The sensor demonstrates promising sensing performance in both low and high intensity UV ranges, with fast response and recovery times of 22s and 39s, respectively. Thus, this work not only demonstrates a novel sensing approach to UV detection but also provides an inexpensive wearable sensor for future electronics.