Senseg, a leading manufacturer of electrostatic sensors based in Finland, announced that it has created a new category of flexible electronics by launching a family of roll-to-roll manufactured actuators for use in traditional flat actuator applications as well as for new applications, such as wearables, soft robotics, VR/AR devices, and interior integrated sensors. The new product, called Senseg ELFIAC (Elastomeric Film Actuator), will deliver large-scale manufacturable actuators that are far less expensive to produce than comparable traditional actuators and use cheaper, non-toxic materials, says Senseg. The inherent flexibility of the low-power Elfiac technology, enables new applications, form factors and geometries.
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“ELFIAC is a robust technology. Its flexible membrane-like structure enables taking haptics to where it was previously impossible,” said Ville Mäkinen, founder and General Manager of Senseg. “We have proven the mass manufacturability of ELFIAC and gone through rigorous product testing. We can see that ELFIAC’s potential expands far beyond our initial scope of consumer electronics products.”
Senseg ELFIAC is completed by the simultaneous introduction of an advanced, ultra-compact, and low-power high-voltage driver circuit for ELFIAC. This circuit is powered by a proprietary system-in-package (SiP) S220 chip, which Senseg has jointly developed with ST Microelectronics. ELFIAC and the S220-based high voltage driver are now available as user-friendly demo kits including software, reports Globe News Wire.
The actuator market, currently pegged at $50 billion globally and expanding to $75 billion by 2025, according to MarketsandMarkets, includes consumer, automotive, healthcare, industrial automation, hydraulic, and other vertical market segments.
Senseg is a pioneer in the electrostatic haptic field since 2008, and an innovator in multiple fields of human-machine interfaces, with more than 40 granted patents. Senseg developed the first solid state haptics solution, the TIXEL, for touch screen devices in 2011, enabling users to feel dynamic surface sensations such as moving a hand through grains of sand or dragging a weighty object on the screen of a tablet device.
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“With ELFIAC, Senseg is solving the problems of cost and materials usage in actuators, without degrading the experience,” says Ramon T. Llamas, research director for IDC’s Mobile Devices and AR/VR team. “This is a key component to the next wave of smart compute devices that are expected to perform rigorous functions while still delivering the types of experiences resident on other, more traditional, hardware.”
