AIR-FLOW BASED MULTIFUNCTIONAL TACTILE DISPLAY DEVICE

WITH MULTI-JET INTEGRATED MICRO VENTURI NOZZLE ARRAY

Masataka Arai1, Kyohei Terao1, Takaaki Suzuki1,
Fusao Simokawa1, Fumikazu Oohira1, Hidekuni Takao1
1
Micro-Nano Structure Device Integrated Research Center, Kagawa University, JAPAN

ABSTRACT presentation with control ability of the mixture ratio of

In this paper, the first air-flow based multifunctional
tactile display with 1-D mixed array of integrated air
nozzles and multi-jet integrated micro venturi atomizers
are presented. This device realizes simultaneous tactile
presentation of “object surface shape” by distributed
air-flow pressures and “sense of cold (cryesthesia)” by
arrayed liquid mist injection. A new type venturi atomizer
with multi jet structure was developed to control the
mixture ratio of different liquids for temperature control.
2-D tactile display can be realized by simply stacking the
1-D array devices. Through the evaluations with fabricated
devices, multifunctional and distributed tactile
presentation has been successfully demonstrated for the
first time.
different liquids. A wider temperature range can be
presented by mixing of plural kinds of liquid coolant. Since
the micro atomizer has very simple structure, it is very easy
to integrate with other kinds of microfluidic components in
tactile displays. The micro nozzle array and the micro
venturi atomizer were successfully integrated on a single
silicon chip as a multifunctional tactile display device.
Air nozzles Mist
(Surface Shaping) (Cooling)

～
～
INTRODUCTION Nozzle
In the present technology of tactile display, there are array
many methods to present tactile information. The most of
tactile presentation technologies utilize only a kind of
Micro
tactile information such as force distribution, surface atomizer
shaping, and feeling of friction. Control of tactile
surface-roughness sensation was realized using ultrasonic
vibration [1]. Also, a noncontact tactile display was Air Supply
realized based on radiation pressure of airbone ultrasound
Fluid Supply
[2]. However, human gets plural kinds of tactile Figure 1: Concept of our multifunctional tactile display.
information for discrimination of the object and object's
surface material. Therefore, we think that we can realize PRINCIPLE AND DEVICE STRUCTURE
virtual sense of reality on tactile presentation by presenting
some kinds of tactile information on the fingertip at the Injection
same time.
Venturi Jets
The target of our research is realization of
multi-functional tactile display by integrating the plural
kinds of tactile presentation mechanisms on a silicon chip
using MEMS technology. In this paper, we have realized
air-flow based tactile display device with two kinds of
tactile presentation mechanisms. Air flow array is used as
the carrier of plural tactile information. Figure 1 shows the Air flow
conceptual diagram of our air-flow based multifunctional
tactile display. Artificial regeneration of object’s surface
shape is performed by controlling the distribution of 100µm
air-flow pressures. In addition, “sense of cold Figure 2: A CAD layout of a multi-jet micro venturi.
(cryesthesia)” can be presented by the evaporation of liquid
micro mist. Micro venturi devices are integrated to The working principle of the venturi atomizer is very
generate micro mist flows that work as “surface coolant” simple, and utilizes the Bernoulli’s principle. The
for presentation of cryesthesia on fingertips. Since it is microfluidic channel in the device has a narrowed part for
difficult to realize “cooling” by present MEMS technology the venturi effect. At the center of venturi, the velocity of
like Peltier devices [3, 4], evaporative cooling by locally the air flow increases, and it results in a pressure drop.
injected mist flow is very promising. Although micro Liquid coolant is sucked through injection jet by the
venturi devices have been integrated in micro-TAS as created vacuum, and mixed with the flowing air. The new
vacuum pressure sources [5], the first liquid atomizer with venturi atomizer integrates three liquid injection jets to mix
micro venturi structure was demonstrated by our group different kinds of liquid mists for modulation of the
recently [6]. In this study, A new type venturi atomizer effective volatility. Figure 2 shows a CAD layout of a
with multi jet structure has been developed for cryesthesia multi-jet micro venturi. A designed width of venturi part is

978-1-4673-0325-5/12/$31.00 ©2012 IEEE 148 MEMS 2012, Paris, FRANCE, 29 January - 2 February 2012

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 100µm, and injection nozzles have 20µm width. The depth
of all the components is 300µm. The venturi atomizer
devices can be integrated with other microfluidic
components using a common fabrication process. The
atomizer devices are integrated with micro nozzle array for
artificial regeneration of object’s surface shape. Figure 3
shows an example layout of multifunctional tactile display
with integrated 1-D air nozzle array and micro atomizers.
It includes 14 micro air nozzles and three venturi
atomizers. 4.1mm is chosen as the pitch of venturi
atomizers because the spatial resolution of human’s
fingertip is 5mm or more in general. The pitch of the
air-flow nozzle array is 700µm, and the outlet size of a
nozzle is 200×300µm2. The designed multi-jet micro
atomizers and the multifunctional tactile displays were
fabricated and evaluated.
Atomizer array of Air Nozzle Array
micro venturi for shape creation
devices 5mm
Figure 3: An example layout of multifunctional tactile
display.
DEVICE FABRICATION
The multifunctional tactile display device including the
multi-jet micro atomizers can be formed by a very simple
fabrication process. First, an aluminum layer is evaporated
to form the hard mask layer for the following deep-RIE
process. Then, microfluidic channels and the venturi
structures including liquid injection jets are formed by
single deep-RIE process. Figure 5 shows an SEM
photograph of a multi-jet venturi atomizer formed by the
deep-RIE step. Three injection nozzles are formed at the
center part of the venturi structure. After that, the masking
layer is removed, and an anodic bonding glass is bonded on
the silicon micro channels and venturies. The fabricated
wafer is separated into individual devices using a dicing
machine.
Venturi
Air flow
Injection
Jets
Figure 5: SEM photograph of a fabricated multi-jet venturi
structure in the deep-RIE process.
Figure 6 shows a photograph of fabricated 1-D
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multifunctional tactile display device. By the dicing
process, outlet ports of the nozzle array and the venturi
atomizer array are automatically formed (appeared) on the
sidewall of the chip as shown in the close-up. Since air and
water supply tubes are bonded on the sidewalls of the chip,
2-D multifunctional tactile display can be realized by
stacking the 1-D arrays.
Outlet of the
device
5mm
Figure 6: A fabricated multifunctional tactile display.
EVALUATION RESULTS
The fabricated multi-jet micro atomizer and the tactile
display devices including micro atomizers were evaluated
for multifunctional tactile presentation. Each nozzles and
microfluidic components are connected to air or fluid
supply tubes. Flowing air is supplied by a compressor.
First, presentation ability of surface shape and cryesthesia
were individually evaluated. Then, multifunctional tactile
presentation was tried with both functions.
SURFACE SHAPE PRESENTATION
Presentation ability of surface shape was evaluated with
the fabricated air-flow nozzle array. Making a distribution
of air low rate in the 1-D nozzle array, a pressure
distribution was created on the facing finger tip skin as a
virtual surface shape. Since the air flow is invisible,
actuated force distribution was visualized using surface
tension of a water surface.
Air nozzles
Surface
Generated surface
By the airflow distribution
Figure 7: Visualized distribution of actuated forces on a
water surface.
 Figure 7 shows an example of visualized distribution of
actuated forces. It is clearly shown that distribution of
presented force by the air low array is faithfully projected
on the water surface. Also, subjects clearly recognized the
two ellipse shapes on their finger tips. Driving at a 28kPa
pressure, 31.3mN/mm2 pressure was reproduced at 5mm
distance from the nozzle tip. This pressure is sufficient
high to present force distribution for human’s fingertip.
Measured diameter of the projection area of single air
nozzle was around 800µm at the distance, and it almost
corresponds to the pitch of the nozzle array. As typical
spatial resolution of human’s fingertip is over 1mm for
force input, this resolution is enough fine for tactile
presentation of pseudo-continuous surface. Judging from
these results, air low array can be applicable to the tactile
display device.
MULTI-JET VENTURI ATOMIZER
Mixture of Plural Kinds of Liquid
Fabricated multi-jet venturi atomizer was evaluated with
plural kinds of liquids for mixing of micro mists. Figure 8
shows a photograph of operating multi-jet venturi atomizer
mixing three kinds of liquid mists. For visualization, the
liquid A and B are colored in blue and red, respectively.
Each colored liquid is alcohol based ink, and the clear
liquid C is ethanol. It is observed that some distance is
necessary to mix all the liquid mist flows, and this distance
tends to be shorter for a faster flow velocity of the supplied
air. As a result of mixing three kinds of mists, the purple
line was drawn on a facing cloth at a distance of about
10mm from the outlet of the device.
Liquid A Liquid B
Liquid C
Air flow
Figure 8: Operating multi-jet venturi atomizer mixing
three kinds of liquids.
Cooling Effect Control by Liquid Mixture Ratio
Modulation of the effective volatility was performed by
controlling the injected liquid volume ratio of two kinds of
coolants (water and ethanol) using the multi-jet venturi
atomizer. Alcohol and water was injected through
individual jets into the venturi, and the total volume of the
injected liquids was controlled at a constant value in this
experiment. Mist mixture ratio of alcohol (98% ethanol)
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and water (DI Water) was controlled with the multi-jet
venturi by changing the biasing pressure of the two liquids.
Modulating the mixture ratio of ethanol and water, the
cooling ability of the mist flow was successfully controlled
continuously. Figure 9 shows a measured relationship
between alcohol mixture ratio and the surface temperature
of a thermo-coupled sensor. Continuous transition of
cooling performance is obtained by controlling the mixture
ratio. The room temperature is 28°C, the total volume of
injected liquid coolants is 0.22ml/min, and the air flow rate
is 63.6ml/min. The surface temperature of the temperature
sensor was linearly controlled from 16.3°C to 22.4°C.
Moreover, the cooling ability can be controlled by the total
volume of injected coolant. A wide-range control of
temperature is realized by micro-mist injection using the
developed multi-jet venturi atomizer.
23
22
Temp erature(ºC)
21
20
19
18
17
16
15
0 50 100
Alcohol Mixture ratio(%)
Figure 9: Measured relationship between alcohol mixture
ratio and the surface temperature of thermo-coupled
sensor (Total injection volume of the coolant is constant).
MULTIFUNCTIONAL TACTILE DISPLAY
Performance of each tactile display element was
sufficient enough to present tactile information. Finally,
multifunctional tactile presentation was evaluated with an
integrated device shown in Fig. 6. In this experiment,
spatially distributed cryesthesia presentation was
successfully demonstrated. Figure 10a shows a color
photograph showing the experimental setup. Figure 10b,
10c, and 10d are thermography images showing surface
temperature distribution on the thumb of a subject. In Fig.
10b, only air flow distribution is presented on the thumb.
Since surface cooling effect with only air flow is small,
local cooling effect by the air flow is not recognized. In the
case one micro mist flow is provided by an atomizer (Fig.
10c), single cold spot is clearly recognized. On the other
hand, if two micro mist flows are provided by two
atomizers, two cold spots are created on the subject’s
thumb as shown in Fig. 10d. The temperature difference
between the cold spot(s) and the thumb surface is more
than 4ºC. This is enough large temperature difference to be
recognized by a human’s fingertip skin. Using arrayed
venturi atomizers, spatially distributed cryesthesia
presentation was successfully demonstrated. Interestingly,
spatial resolution of local cooling was much improved by
localization effect of liquid evaporation as compared to the
 case of Fig. 10b. The mist control was very effective to
present distributed cryesthesia. Simultaneous presentation
of surface shape and cryesthesia was successfully realized
by the newly developed multifunctional tactile display.
Thumb
Mist flow Device
(a) Color photograph showing the experimental setup,
(b) Only air flow distribution is presented,
(c) One micro mist flow is provided by an atomizer,
(d) Two micro mist flows are provided by two atomizers,
Figure 10: Demonstration of multifunctional tactile
display including spatially distributed cryesthesia
presentation using alcohol as a liquid coolant.
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CONCLUSIONS
In this paper, we proposed the air-flow based
multifunctional tactile display device which integrates
evaporative cooling mechanism and force distribution
presentation mechanism. Multi-jet venturi atomizer and
multifunctional tactile display was designed and fabricated.
The fabricated device showed sufficient performances on
presentation of force distribution on human’s fingertip.
Also, a wide range cryesthesia presentation using the
multi-jet atomizer was successfully realized by the mixture
control of plural kinds of liquid coolant. The surface
cooling effect was controlled linearly from -5.6°C to
-11.7°C. Finally, spatially distributed cryesthesia
presentation was successfully demonstrated with
integrated multifunctional tactile display device.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This study is partially supported by Japan Science and
Technology Agency, A-Step Feasibility Study, 2011.
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CONTACT
Hidekuni Takao, Faculty of Engineering,
Kagawa University, 2217-20, Hayashi, Takamatsu, Japan;
Tel/Fax: +81-87-864-2331;
E-mail: takao@eng.kagawa-u.ac.jp