Magnetostrictive type tactile sensor based on metal embedded polymer architecture

This study presents new process scheme to fabricate polymer structure with embedded metal on silicon substrate. The primary merit of presented process scheme is: simple approach for the integration of 3D structures with different materials (e.g. metal, glass, polymer) on substrate. To demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed process scheme, a tactile sensor design consisting of polymer structure with embedded 3D Ni coil winding is implemented. As the polymer diaphragm deformed by tactile force, the magnetostriction effect of the 3D Ni coil inductor will induce the permeability change. Thus, the permeability change as well as the tactile force can be detected by the inductance variation. Preliminary measurements show the sensitivity of magnetostrictive type tactile sensor based on the proposed metal embedded polymer architecture is near 1.33%/N at the sensing range of 0~1N.