Three-Axis Capacitive Sensor Arrays for Local and Global Shear Force Detection

We report the real time characterization and measurement results of a new tri-axial capacitive sensing array. Each unit cell of the Kapton based sensor has an overlapping electrode geometry that allows for the measurement of normal and shear force magnitudes, and the estimation of the 2D and 3D angle of the shear force. The use of a patterned Ecoflex dielectric layer further improves the shear force response and the tunability of the sensor. A custom readout circuit was developed to selectively read the differential capacitances in the sensor array. The local (unit cell) and global (array) force response of the sensor was characterized using a tilt stage, allowing us to determine both the normal and the shear response at different angles in the range of 0-20N. The results show that the Unit Cell response is uniform in the linear range of 0-10N for normal forces (4.6fF/N for all four differential capacitances) and shows good sensitivity for shear forces (1.4 fF/N difference between the right and left differential capacitances at the minimum) and low cross talk. Similar results were seen when a global force was applied across the sensor array. 2D and 3D models were developed to extrapolate the shear force angle from the capacitance data. We also characterized the flexible patterned dielectric layer to understand the effect of its structural dimensions on the effective relative permittivity and developed an analytical model to easily calculate the effective relative permittivity, which showed excellent correlation with the experimentally obtained results. [2020-0382]