3-axis all elastomer MEMS tactile sensor

Author

Charalambides, Alexi ; Jian Cheng ; Teng Li ; Bergbreiter, Sarah

Author_Institution

Inst. for Syst. Res., Univ. of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA

fYear

2015

fDate

18-22 Jan. 2015

Firstpage

726

Lastpage

729

Abstract

This paper reports the first 3-axis (normal and shear force) all-elastomer capacitive MEMS tactile sensor. A multiphysics finite element model was developed and was used to tailor sensor geometry for high shear force sensitivity. Sensor area was 1.5 × 1.5 mm and used vertical capacitive structures with 20 μm electrode gaps to achieve high shear force sensitivities of 8.8 fF/N, shear force resolutions of 50 mN, and shear range of more than 2000 mN, with a normal force sensitivity of 0.9 fF/N. Fabrication utilized a simple elastomer molding process with reusable DRIE silicon molds for inexpensive manufacturing.

Keywords

capacitive sensors; elastomers; finite element analysis; microfabrication; microsensors; moulding; tactile sensors; 3-axis all-elastomer capacitive MEMS tactile sensor; elastomer molding process; electrode gaps; high-shear force sensitivity; multiphysics finite element model; normal force sensitivity; reusable DRIE silicon molds; sensor geometry; shear force resolutions; shear range; vertical capacitive structures; Capacitance; Electrodes; Force; Geometry; Robot sensing systems; Sensitivity;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Micro Electro Mechanical Systems (MEMS), 2015 28th IEEE International Conference on

Conference_Location

Estoril

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/MEMSYS.2015.7051060

Filename

7051060