Title :
Piezoelectric polymer transducer arrays for flexible tactile sensors
Author :
Seminara, L. ; Pinna, L. ; Valle, M. ; Basirico, Laura ; Loi, Alberto ; Cosseddu, P. ; Bonfiglio, A. ; Ascia, A. ; Biso, Maurizio ; Ansaldo, Alberto ; Ricci, Davide ; Metta, G.
Author_Institution :
Dept. of Telecommun., Electron., Electr. & Naval Eng., Univ. of Genoa, Genoa, Italy
Abstract :
The paper focuses on the manufacturing technology of modular components for large-area tactile sensors, which are made of arrays of polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) piezoelectric polymer taxels integrated on flexible PCBs. PVDF transducers were chosen for the high electromechanical transduction frequency bandwidth (up to 1 kHz for the given application). Patterned electrodes were inkjet printed on the PVDF film. Experimental tests on skin module prototypes demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed approach and reveal the potentiality to build large area flexible and conformable robotic skin.
Keywords :
electromechanical effects; ink jet printing; piezoelectric transducers; polymer films; printed circuits; robots; sensor arrays; tactile sensors; thin film sensors; PVDF film; conformable robotic skin; electromechanical transducer; flexible PCB; flexible robotic skin; flexible tactile sensor; inkjet printing; modular component manufacturing technology; patterned electrode; piezoelectric polymer transducer array; polyvinylidene fluoride; Films; Polymers; Skin; Tactile sensors;
Conference_Titel :
Sensors, 2012 IEEE
Conference_Location :
Taipei
Print_ISBN :
978-1-4577-1766-6
Electronic_ISBN :
1930-0395
DOI :
10.1109/ICSENS.2012.6411300
