Note to users. If you're seeing this message, it means that your browser cannot find this page's style/presentation instructions -- or possibly that you are using a browser that does not support current Web standards. Find out more about why this message is appearing, and what you can do to make your experience of our site the best it can be.

Science 9 June 2006:
Vol. 312. no. 5779, p. 1437
DOI: 10.1126/science.312.5779.1437f
Prev | Table of Contents | Next

This Week in Science

Artificial tactile sensors with sensitivity comparable to human fingers would be especially useful for robotic surgery applications. In general, however, scaling up such devices beyond millimeter dimensions has been a major hurdle. Maheshwari and Saraf (p. 1501; see the Perspective by Crowder) fabricated a thin-film sensor that is large enough to image a penny and that, like a finger, achieves a height resolution of less than 5 micrometers at 10 kilopascals of applied pressure. The fabrication process relies on simple self-assembly of alternating gold and semiconducting (CdS) nanoparticle layers, separated by dielectric layers. At biases greater than 8 volts, applied stress enhances electron tunneling between the layers and induces electroluminescence that is linearly proportional to the pressure, which is then detected with a charge-coupled device camera




To Advertise     Find Products

Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)