HIGH-PERFORMANCE FLEXIBLE FORCE AND TEMPERATURE SENSING ARRAY WITH A ROBUST STRUCTURE

We have developed a flexible tactile sensor array capable of sensing physical quantities, e.g. force and temperature with high-performances and high spatial resolution. The fabricated tactile sensor consists of 8 × 8 force measuring array with 1 mm spacing and a thin metal (copper) temperature sensor. The flexible force sensing array consists of sub-millimetre-size bar-shaped semi-conductor strain gage array attached to a thin and flexible printed circuit board covered by stretchable elastomeric material on both sides. This design incorporates benefits of both materials; the semi-conductor's high performance and the polymer's mechanical flexibility and robustness, while overcoming their drawbacks of those two materials. Special fabrication processes, so called “dry-transfer technique” have been used to fabricate the tactile sensor along with standard micro-fabrication processes.