This project exploited the mature and commercially available standard CMOS process to develop the micro tactile/force sensor.

About the sensor design: novel inductive sensing mechanism instead of existing piezoresistive and capacitive sensing mechanisms is chosen to implement a robust (for both fabrication and operation) tactile sensor. The device can be easily fabricated using existing semiconductor process technologies and could also tolerate higher overload. Since no suspended thin film structure is required for the proposed sensing mechanism, many technical problems such as the stiction of released structures, the initial deformation due to residual stress…etc. can be avoided. As a result, the proposed design could enhance the reliability and yield of tactile sensor.
About the fabrication processes: the standard commercially available CMOS platform is exploited to implement the proposed tactile sensor, and no customized special fabrication processes are required. In other words, as the concept of proposed tactile sensor is demonstrated, it is ready for mass production.

Moreover, the proposed inductive tactile sensor chip has a very small footprint (below 2mm), which can be easily integrated into the consumer electronics devices, such as smart phone, smart watch, etc. In summary, the proposed tactile sensor can find broad applications for products which require the force detection or the tactile load as the human-machine interface.