Si membrane based tactile sensor with active matrix circuitry for artificial skin applications

The fabrication and the characteristics of an inorganic silicon-based flexible tactile sensor equipped with active-matrix circuitry compatible with a batch microfabrication process are reported. An 8 x 8 array of 260 nm-thick silicon strain gauges along with individual thin film transistor switches was built on a plastic substrate with 1 mm spacing, corresponding to a human spatial resolution at the fingertip. We demonstrated that the sensor shows excellent performances in terms of repeatability of 1.1%, hysteresis of 1.0%, scanning speed of as much as 100 kHz and resolution of 12.4 kPa while maintaining low power consumption and signal crosstalk through a series of experiments. (C) 2015 AIP Publishing LLC.