JPH02291901A - Tactile array sensor - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To make it possible to detect the position and the attitude of a light, minute component such as an optical component and an LSI by implanting hairlike bodies in an electret vibrator. CONSTITUTION:A rear-surface electrode 24 is arranged on an insulating substrate 31 in a honeycomb patter. FETs 25 and resistors 27 in IC forms are incorporated in the inside of the electrode 24 so that they are equivalent to circuits. At this time, however, a power source 26 is not incorporated. A power source terminal 32 and an output terminal 33 are wired at the lower side of the insulating substrate 31 by way of through holes. The electrode 24 is supported with a nonconductive body 34. A conductive partitioning wall 35 is designed so that its height is higher than the height of the electrode by 10 - 100mum. The wall 35 surrounds the electrode 24. An electret vibrator 21 is stuck to the upper surface of the partitioning wall 35. Hairlike bodies 36 are implanted into the upper surface. When the hairlike bodies 36 are pushed, the electret vibrator 21 is deformed. Electric signals are outputted based on the same principle of operation as that of an electret microphone. In this way, the position and the attitude of a light, minute component such as an optical component and an LSI can be detected.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Industrial Application Field] This invention detects the state of contact with an object, and determines its shape and position. This relates to a tactile array sensor that detects posture, and can perform useful functions by attaching it to robots and industrial machines.

[Conventional technology]

Robotic devices and systems perform useful functions in various fields, but in order to function at a higher level similar to that of humans, sensors that can accurately detect the position, shape, etc. of objects handled by robots are required. .

FIG. 5 shows an arrayed tactile sensor disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 62-204102. In FIG. 5, 1 is a base material preferably inelastic, and is a flat or arbitrarily curved platform. Elastic material 2 adjacent to base material 1 as desired
Place. Reference numeral 3 denotes a biasing layer, which is placed adjacent to the base material 1 or any elastic material 2. The biasing layer 3 is composed of a piezoelectric material 4 such as polyvinylidene fluoride (PVF) and electrodes 5 and 6 on both sides thereof. ? lt pole 5.
6 is a parallel array of electrode rods or conductors arranged at right angles to each other. An insulating layer 7 is located adjacent to the electrode 6 . 8 is a piezoelectric detection layer located adjacent to the insulating layer 7. This piezoelectric detection layer 8 has conductors 10 on both sides.
．． It consists of a piezoelectric material 9 with 11. Finally, an optional elastic protective layer 12 is placed to protect the whole from the surroundings.

FIG. 6 is an exploded view showing the arrangement of the biasing layer 3 in detail.

This attachment oIjrgJ3 is composed of a plurality of conductors 5 arranged on one surface thereof and a plurality of conductors 6 on the opposite surface.

Now, assume that an external force is applied from above through the elastic protective layer 12 (FIG. 5). The external force also acts on the piezoelectric material 4 via the piezoelectric detection layer 8 and the like. Suppose now that a force is applied to the portion 13 of the piezoelectric material 4. At this time, a potential difference occurs between the portions 1415 of the electrodes 5 and 6, so if a technique such as time multiplexing of matrix addressing is used, the position where the force is applied and its magnitude can be known. If the external force has a certain distribution, the state of that distribution can be detected by the above method. In other words, when a large object is pressed against the elastic protective layer 12, its shape, position, and attitude can be determined from the output signal. The piezoelectric detection layer 8 is used to accurately detect the magnitude of the total external force applied.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] However, in the conventional arrayed tactile sensor described above, since an external force is applied to the piezoelectric material 4 via the piezoelectric detection layer 8, the insulating layer 7, and the single pole 6, The force spreads out, making it difficult to increase the resolution by 2♂.

In addition, since the piezoelectric material 4 is used as the detector element,
There are other tactile array sensors that use conductive rubber as the detection element, but they all have the same drawbacks as above.

The purpose of this invention is to solve the drawbacks of conventional inventions, such as low resolution and low detection sensitivity.
Ranking of light and small parts such as SI. An object of the present invention is to provide a tactile array sensor that can accurately detect posture.

[Means to solve the problem]

The tactile array sensor according to the present invention includes electrodes arranged in an Al/A shape, a partition wall surrounding the electrodes that is higher than the electrodes, an electret vibrating body supported in a plane by the upper surface of the partition wall, and a electret It consists of a vibrating body and a hair-like body.

(Function) In this invention, when the hair-like body is pressed, the electret vibrating body is deformed, and an electric signal is output based on the same operating principle as an electret microphone.

〔Example〕

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing the detection and burial of the present invention.

The electret vibrating body 21 is composed of an electret-treated organic thin film 22 and a conductive metal 23 such as aluminum deposited on its surface. 24 is a back electrode, 50~
It faces the Nielectret vibrating body 21 with a gap of about 100 μm. When the electret movable body 21 is displaced by some external force, a corresponding induced charge is generated on the back electrode 24. This capacitance is small, several tens of pF, but
It is amplified by the source follower circuit of the FET 25 with high input impedance, and a voltage is obtained at the output terminal 28. This detection sensitivity is extremely high, and it is used as an electret microphone. The FET 25 has an extremely simple circuit configuration in which a power supply 26 and a resistor 27 are connected in series.

FIG. 2 shows an embodiment of this invention. Figure 3 is its cross-sectional view. 24 is the same back electrode as in FIG. 1, and is arranged on the insulating substrate 31 in a regular manner, in the case of the figure, in a honeycomb shape. There is an IC FET inside the back electrode 24.
25 and a resistor 27 are built in so as to be equivalent to the circuit shown in FIG. However, in this case, the power supply 26
is not built-in, and the power supply terminal 32 and output terminal 33
are wired through holes on the underside of the insulating substrate 31. The back electrode 24 is supported by a nonconductor 34. 35 is a conductive partition wall that surrounds the back electrode 24.
Further, its height is 10 to 100 mm higher than the height of the back electrode 24.
It is designed to be µm higher.

The electret vibrating body 21 is pasted on the upper surface of the partition wall 35, and further, hair-like bodies 36 are flocked on the upper surface so as to be perpendicular to the membrane surface.

When some object is pressed from the top surface, the hair-like body 36
Since the electret vibrating body 21 is deformed through
As explained in FIG. 1, the degree of deformation can be extracted as an electrical signal. The shape of an object can be identified by processing signals from each element arranged in an array.

In the embodiment shown in FIG. 2, the FET 25 and the resistor 27 are placed on the same side of the insulating substrate 31 as the back electrode 24;
As shown in FIG. 4, they may be placed on opposite sides. In this case, the electrical signal processing section (FET 25 and resistor 27) and the sensing section (electret vibration membrane 21, back electrode 24, etc.) can be completely separated, which facilitates manufacturing.

Although the arrangement of each element has been described as a honeycomb arrangement, the arrangement is not limited to this and may be any arrangement such as a grid pattern. However, it is also possible to calculate the shape of an object etc. from the output signal of each element. Considering this, a simple Go scale is desirable. The above structure can be manufactured by a combination of machining and electric elements, but it is also possible to apply LSI manufacturing technology, in which case the individual detection elements are very small, 0.1 mm or less, i.e. It is possible to increase the resolution.

(Effects of the Invention) As explained above, the present invention includes electrodes arranged in an array, a partition wall surrounding the electrodes that is higher than the electrodes, an electret vibrator supported in a plane by the upper surface of the partition wall, and a electret vibrator. It consists of a hair-like body with hairs planted on the body, and uses the same operating principle as an electret microphone, so the detection sensitivity is extremely high. In addition, since the force deforms the electret vibrating body through the hair-like body, the hair-like body acts as a buffer, and does not apply local force to the membrane.
It has the characteristic of providing stable performance. Furthermore, since the configuration of the present invention is extremely simple and can be manufactured using an LSI manufacturing process, one element can be miniaturized. That is, it also has the advantage of realizing a tactile array sensor with extremely high resolution.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

Fig. 1 is a diagram for explaining the principle of the invention, Fig. 2 is a perspective view showing an embodiment of the invention with main parts cut away, and Fig. 3 is a diagram for explaining the principle of the invention.
4 is a sectional view showing another embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 5 is an exploded perspective view showing an example of a conventional tactile array sensor, and FIG. 6 is an exploded perspective view showing details thereof. It is. In the figure, 21 is a Nielectret vibrator, 22 is an organic thin film,
23 is a conductive metal, 24 is a back electrode, 25 is an FET, 26
is a power supply, 27 is a resistor, 28 is an output terminal, 31 is an insulating substrate, 32 is a power supply terminal, 33 is an output terminal, 34 is a nonconductor,
35 is a partition wall. Figure 7 Figure 2 Figure Figure Figure

Claims (1)

[Claims] consisting of electrodes arranged in an array, a partition wall surrounding the electrodes that is higher than the electrodes, an electret vibrating body supported in a plane by the upper surface of the partition wall, and a hair-like body implanted on the electret vibrating body. A tactile array sensor characterized by: