Fabrication and Evaluation of a Novel Actuator for Reaction Force Variable Passive-Type Tactile Displays

In this paper, we report the fabrication and evaluation of an actuator for reaction force variable passive-type tactile displays using a highly formable Ti-Ni-Cu shape-memory alloy. The actuator relies on the superelastic effect of SMAs and can influence the applied reaction force. We successfully fabricated the desired convex cross structure with a height of 123 µm, varied the reaction force between 40 and 80 mN at a depth of 100 µm, and controlled the electrical resistance linearly with temperature.