Abstract
By using the stress–impedance (SI) effect of a soft magnetic amorphous FeCuNbSiB alloy, a micromachined force sensor was fabricated and characterized. The alloy was used as a sputtered thin film of 500 nm thickness. To clarify the SI effect in the used material as a thin film, its magnetic and mechanical properties were first investigated. The stress dependence of the magnetic permeability was shown to be caused by the used transducer effect. The sputtered thin film also exhibited a large yield strength of 983 GPa. Even though the fabrication technology for the device is very simple, characterization revealed a gauge factor (GF) of 756, which is several times larger than that achieved with conventional transducer effects, such as the piezoresistive effect. The fabricated device shows great application potential as a tactile sensor.
Highlights
Force sensors based on several transducer principles, such as capacitive, piezoresistive, piezoelectric, and optical principles, have been studied [1]
As a step here, based on these results, we present a microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) force sensor with very high performance but simple fabrication technology, using the SI effect
As a result of the tensile test of the free-standing thin films of FeCuNbSiB, it was confirmed that the material shows almost fully elastic behavior until breaking
Summary
Force sensors based on several transducer principles, such as capacitive, piezoresistive, piezoelectric, and optical principles, have been studied [1]. Capacitive-type sensors have two electric plates and a dielectric region in between. When applying force, the gap between the plates may change, which means that the capacitance may change depending on the applied force. With multiple plates, both normal forces and shear forces can be sensed. Capacitive-type sensors are commonly used for robot applications. In [2,3], with microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) technology, the authors fabricated capacitive-type force sensor devices that can detect normal and shear forces by using multiple sensor plates
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