Technology development of silicon based CMOS tactile senor for robotics applications

This paper describes the design, manufacture and measure of tactile sensor with piezoresistive detection of deflection. The tactile sensor array was constructed with a fully integrated complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) fabrication process and bulk micromachining for the sensing structures. Electrical connections were made between the flexible printed circuit boards (FPCB) and the sensor array module using an anisotropic conductive film (ACF) bonding. The individual sensor element has been shown to demonstrate linear responses to applied normal stress (117 mV/N). Therefore, this approach could yield a highly sensitive tactile sensor array for use in dexterous robotic applications.