Development of a Liquid-Gas Phase-Change Actuator and a Flexible Tactile Display for Precise Tactile Feedback (May 19, 2026)

A research team led by Professor Kim Jong-baek of the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Yonsei University has developed a flexible haptic display that simultaneously achieves high spatial resolution and large actuation displacement by applying a micro-actuator array based on liquid–gas phase change. Existing flexible haptic displays had limitations in conveying precise haptic information due to their large cell sizes on the centimeter scale, while phase-change-based actuators faced challenges in practical application due to slow response times and high power consumption. The research team developed an ultra-thin, flexible haptic display with fast response characteristics on the order of hundreds of milliseconds by implementing a high-resolution actuator array that matches the spatial resolution of human fingertip tactile receptors. Furthermore, the team confirmed stable operation even on curved surfaces and, by integrating the display with a virtual reality (VR) system to deliver pressure stimuli to the user’s fingertips in real time, implemented an immersive haptic interface that simultaneously provides visual and tactile feedback. This technology is expected to be widely utilized in next-generation wearable haptic interface fields, such as electronic skin (e-skin), wearable healthcare, virtual and augmented reality (VR/AR), and human-machine interfaces (HMI). These findings were published in *Microsystems & Nanoengineering*, the top-ranked international journal among 81 academic journals in the field of Instruments & Instrumentation.

Link to the related paper: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41378-026-01288-z