CMOS-Based Tactile Force Sensor: A Review

Tactile sensor is an important medium to receive touching information. The rapid development of the tactile sensor technology was boosted by various application needs and fabrication approaches. Among the applications, force sensing is important in a variety of fields. Several processes including polymer-based, silicon-based, and CMOS-based fabrication techniques have been developed to realize compact, low cost and power consumption, and superiorly performing micro tactile force sensors. Among them, CMOS-based tactile force sensor could leverage the mature semiconductor fabrication technologies and services and is also equipped with the potential of on-chip circuitries with better signal processing capability and quality, which transforms the tactile system into the next level by system on chip (SoC) integration. This article stands on an overall scope of the CMOS-based tactile force sensor to systematically conclude and compare the advanced approaches. The literature on CMOS-based tactile sensor will be reviewed, and process approaches and design concerns of various sensing mechanisms are introduced and discussed.