A Highly Sensitive Capacitive Pressure Sensor with Microdome Structure for Robot Tactile Detection

This work presents a polymer-based capacitive sensor array capable of measuring both normal and shear forces. The capacitive sensing element consists of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) dielectric layers and gold electrode arrays. The PDMS dielectric layers were patterned with microdome structures using a simple micromachining technique with nylon membrane filters. Further, by using membranes with different pore sizes, the pressure sensitivity of the capacitive tactile sensor can be adjusted with ease. The measured relationship of capacitance versus pressure indicates that the sensitivity of sensors with interlocked interfaces is much higher than that of the sensor with planar films.