A 1024-element high-performance silicon tactile imager

Author

Suzuki, K. ; Najafi, K. ; Wise, K.D.

fYear

1988

fDate

11-14 Dec. 1988

Firstpage

674

Lastpage

677

Abstract

A 32-*32-element capacitive silicon tactile imager has been developed for use in precision robotics applications where high density and high resolution are important. The silicon chip measures 1.8 cm*1.7 cm and is organized in an X-Y matrix of 1024 capacitor elements on 0.5-mm centers. The process uses two boron diffusions (deep and shallow) followed by a silicon-to-glass electrostatic bonding step and subsequent unmasked wafer dissolution. This results in a thick center plate for the sense capacitor supported by thinner beams. A data acquisition system used with the device offers over 7-bit force resolution with a maximum operating force of about 1 gm/element.<>

Keywords

electric sensing devices; elemental semiconductors; industrial robots; integrated circuit technology; silicon; tactile sensors; 0.5 mm; 1.8 cm; 1024 capacitor elements; 7 bit; Si to glass electrostatic bonding; X-Y matrix; capacitive Si tactile imager; data acquisition system; force per element 1 g; glass substrate; high density; high resolution; operating force; precision robotics applications; sense capacitor; thick center plate; unmasked wafer dissolution; Boron; Capacitors; Data acquisition; Diffusion bonding; Electrostatic measurements; Image resolution; Robots; Semiconductor device measurement; Silicon; Wafer bonding;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Electron Devices Meeting, 1988. IEDM '88. Technical Digest., International

Conference_Location

San Francisco, CA, USA

ISSN

0163-1918

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/IEDM.1988.32903

Filename

32903