title: High-resolution thin-film device to sense texture by touch.
abstract: Touch (or tactile) sensors are gaining renewed interest as the level of sophistication in the application of minimum invasive surgery and humanoid robots increases. The spatial resolution of current large-area (greater than 1 cm(2)) tactile sensor lags by more than an order of magnitude compared with the human finger. By using metal and semiconducting nanoparticles, a approximately 100-nm-thick, large-area thin-film device is self-assembled such that the change in current density through the film and the electroluminescent light intensity are linearly proportional to the local stress. A stress image is obtained by pressing a copper grid and a United States 1-cent coin on the device and focusing the resulting electroluminescent light directly on the charge-coupled device. Both the lateral and height resolution of texture are comparable to the human finger at similar stress levels of approximately 10 kilopascals.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE 68588, USA.
authors.forename: Vivek
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Maheshwari
authors.forename: Ravi F
authors.initials: RF
authors.lastname: Saraf
mesh_terms: D005385:Fingers / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D046529:Microscopy, Electron, Transmission; D012371:Robotics; D012684:Sensory Thresholds; D014110:Touch