Dielectric elastomer stack actuators (DESA) offer the possibility to build actuator arrays at very high density. The driving voltage can be defined by the film thickness, ranging from 80 μm down to 5 μm and driving field strength of 30 V/μm. In this paper we present the development of a vibrotactile display based on multilayer technology. The display is used to present several operating conditions of a machine in form of haptic information to a human finger. As an example the design of a mp3-player interface is introduced. To build up an intuitive and user friendly interface several aspects of human haptic perception have to be considered. Using the results of preliminary user tests the interface is designed and an appropriate actuator layout is derived. Controlling these actuators is important because there are many possibilities to present different information, e.g. by varying the driving parameters. A built demonstrator is used to verify the concept: a high recognition rate of more than 90% validates the concept. A characterization of mechanical and electrical parameters proofs the suitability of dielectric elastomer stack actuators for the use in mobile applications.

Date Published: 9 April 2010
PDF: 9 pages
Proc. SPIE 7642, Electroactive Polymer Actuators and Devices (EAPAD) 2010, 76420D (9 April 2010); doi: 10.1117/12.847358

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 7642:
Electroactive Polymer Actuators and Devices (EAPAD) 2010
Yoseph Bar-Cohen, Editor(s)