Ed Haidar - Tekscan Applications EngineerTekscan Application Engineer Ed Haidar is back with more helpful tips for integrating FlexiForce™ touch sensors into a product or device.

One of the key benefits of FlexiForce touch sensors is the fact that they can be calibrated by following a simple and fast three-point calibration procedure. As you may have seen in an earlier blog post, FlexiForce sensors can be powered by simple circuitry. We generally recommend an Inverting Op-Amp Circuit (Dual Source), but a Non-Inverting Op-Amp (Single Source) or a Voltage Divider can also be used to power FlexiForce sensors.

We highly advise designing your circuit with adjustable components so that the sensitivity can be adjusted. This will address two key electrical integration necessities:

1. To have the ability to adjust the maximum force rating for the circuit to fit the applied force of the application
2. To account for variation between different sensors – FlexiForce sensors have an inherent part-to-part variation*

Before calibrating your FlexiForce touch sensor, use the circuit’s sensitivity adjustment method to set the output of the circuit to 80-90% of full-scale at maximum applied force.

This short video shows a real-world FlexiForce calibration procedure for use in an embedded application:

For other FlexiForce integration resources, Visit our FlexiForce Best Practices for Integration Portal by clicking here.

^{*+/-40% lower resistance - higher circuit output | +/-40% higher resistance - lower circuit output}