Flexible Tactile Sensor Fabricated using Polymer Membrane

We present the fabrication process and the characteristics of a flexible tactile sensor by silicon micromachining, polymer processing and packaging technologies. The fabrication process for the tactile sensor was composed of in the fabrication of sensor chips and their packaging on the flexible printed circuit board (FPCB). The variation rate of resistance was about 4.6%/N when normal force was applied. This sensor can be used to sense touch, pressure, and slip because the signals are is are determined by the variations of resistance of the metal strain gauge for normal and shear force in tactile sensor.