A three-axial tactile force sensor for the investigation of micromechanical
structures has been developed using silicon micromatchining technology The
sensing element consists of a boss membrane and a sampling needle attached
to the boss as tactile component. Piezoresistors are integrated in the dia
phragm sensing str ess caused by a deflection of the boss due to an applied
force. The position of the resistors has been optimized by FEM simulations
for the detection of vertical as well as lateral loads. Calibration of the
sensor has been performed using a reference sensor and a test setup develo
ped at our laboratory. To evaluate the sen sor's performance the same setup
has been used for the determination of the spring constant of a micromecha
nical cantilever: A misalignment of the cantilever of 3 degrees could be de
tected In addition, an advanced design of the sensor fabricated by rapid pr
ototyping and a miniaturized tactile component will be described.