Resonating Tactile Stimulators Based on Piezoelectric Polymer Films

Abstract

We have designed, fabricated and tested piezoelectric polymer (Polyvinylidene fluoride, PVDF) film-based resonating actuators for tactile stimulation. The proposed resonating tactile stimulators are composed of 3x4 stimulating dot arrays with polyimide membranes. The air chambers placed on the PVDF films aid in indirect piezoelectric actuation and produce lower spring stiffnesses than are associated with conventional direct piezoelectric actuation. They can achieve large displacements with low input voltages. The performance of the proposed resonating tactile stimulators was characterized. The stimulators achieve an output displacement of 257.0 +/- 1.5 nm, output pressure of 339.1 N/m2, and response time of 0.7 ms when an input voltage of 80 Vpk (52.5 kHz) is switched at 2 ms intervals (250 Hz). It has been experimentally demonstrated that the proposed flexible resonating actuators are capable of stimulating human skin to support tactile or braille displays integrated into tactile interface systems.