Silicon three-axial tactile force sensor

A three-axial tactile force sensor for the investigation of micromechanical structures has been developed using silicon micromatchining technology The sensing element consists of a boss membrane and a sampling needle attached to the boss as tactile component. Piezoresistors are integrated in the diaphragm sensing str ess caused by a deflection of the boss due to an applied force. The position of the resistors has been optimized by FEM simulations for the detection of vertical as well as lateral loads. Calibration of the sensor has been performed using a reference sensor and a test setup developed at our laboratory. To evaluate the sen sor's performance the same setup has been used for the determination of the spring constant of a micromechanical cantilever: A misalignment of the cantilever of 3 degrees could be detected In addition, an advanced design of the sensor fabricated by rapid prototyping and a miniaturized tactile component will be described.