Cu Thin Film Polyimide Heater for Nerve-Net Tactile Sensor

Tactile sensing is required for assistant robots. A new stacked sensor head was proposed which detects forces and thermal sensations with a nerve-net LSI chip. To measure temperatures and heat flows, the sensor head required a thin and small heater to heat up the sensor head. The features of the polyimide heater are compact, low heat capacity, low power consumption and ease of attaching it to the LSI chip. The polyimide heater consisted of Au 10 nm/Cu 200 nm/Cr 20 nm thickness layers on a polyimide film. The surface of the sensor head heated up to 60 °C by the polyimide heater with 0.3 W. By the Cu thin film polyimide heater, the small stacked sensor head with the nerve-net LSI chip is enable to detect forces, temperatures, and heat flows, simultaneously.