Multimodal force and temperature tactile sensor based on a short-channel organic transistor with high sensitivity

Antonello Mascia; Andrea Spanu; Annalisa Bonfiglio; Piero Cosseddu

doi:10.1038/s41598-023-43360-y

Multimodal force and temperature tactile sensor based on a short-channel organic transistor with high sensitivity

Sci Rep. 2023 Sep 27;13(1):16232. doi: 10.1038/s41598-023-43360-y.

Authors

Antonello Mascia¹, Andrea Spanu², Annalisa Bonfiglio^{1

2}, Piero Cosseddu³

Affiliations

¹ Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, University of Cagliari, via Marengo, Cagliari, 09123, Italy.
² Department of Science, Technology and Society, Scuola Universitaria Superiore IUSS, Palazzo del Broletto, Piazza della Vittoria 15, Pavia, 27100, Italy.
³ Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, University of Cagliari, via Marengo, Cagliari, 09123, Italy. piero.cosseddu@unica.it.

Abstract

In this manuscript, we report on a novel architecture for the fabrication of highly sensitive multimodal tactile transducers, for the simultaneous detection of temperature and force. Such devices are based on a flexible Organic Charge Modulated Field Effect Transistor (OCMFET) coupled with a pyro/piezoelectric element, namely a commercial film of poly-vinylene difluoride (PVDF). The reduction of the channel length, obtained by employing a low-resolution vertical channel architecture, allowed to maximize the ratio between the sensing area and the transistor's channel area, a technological approach that allows to considerably enhance both temperature and force sensitivity, while at the same time minimize the sensor's dimensions. Thanks to the employment of a straightforward, up-scalable, and highly reproducible fabrication process, this solution represents an interesting alternative for all those applications requiring high-density, high-sensitivity sensors such as robotics and biomedical applications.