49-1: Invited Paper: Large-Area Tactile Skins Prepared with Thin-Film Technology

Mechanoereceptors embedded in the glabrous skin of the human hand encode a range of physical stimuli e.g. pressure, strain, and temperature. The shape, softness, and distributed modalities of the natural skin make it challenging to replicate with synthetic materials. Using stretchable metallization on soft, elastomeric carrier substrates, we have optimized and implemented a multimodal electronic skin covering the dorsal and palmar sides of the fingers. The wearable tactile skin includes resistive sensors monitoring finger articulation and capacitive pressure sensors that register distributed pressure along the entire length of the finger. The next challenge is the integration of a soft thin-film transistor “backplane” with the “frontplane” sensors to engineer a high-density, highly distributed tactile electronic skin.