Piezoelectric polyimide tactile sensors

An important application of piezoelectric materials is for tactile sensing. For non-planar applications, polymer materials offer the potential to provide flexible tactile sensors conforming to a variety of surface geometries. We have demonstrated a fabrication process for fabricating MEMS tactile sensor structures using a novel high-temperature piezoelectric polyimide as the sensing material. The process consists of conventional lithography and metallization processes and uses a sacrificial layer of photoresist. Electrodes are fabricated on the upper and lower surfaces of the suspended bridge and cantilever structures and a self-test electrode is fabricated underlying each suspended component for testing. Prototype structures have been fabricated on silicon substrates for the purposes of process demonstration and characterization.