Maria Teresa Todaro

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About

Maria Teresa Todaro is a leading figure in the development of flexible microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), with a core focus on piezoelectric materials and their integration onto soft, conformable substrates. Her pioneering work centers on aluminum nitride (AlN) thin films, demonstrating that this polycrystalline material can be effectively grown on polymers like Kapton to create novel, elastic devices. A key contribution is her 2012 study on "Tactile multisensing on flexible aluminum nitride," which showed that such heterostructures can simultaneously exhibit both piezoelectricity and significant capacitive variation under stress, enabling a new class of tactile sensors. This foundational work, garnering 30 citations, established a powerful material system for soft MEMS. Expanding on this, her 2014 paper on "Piezoelectric soft MEMS for tactile sensing and energy harvesting" further validated the technology's versatility, showcasing its dual potential for sensing and energy scavenging. By merging the robustness of AlN with the flexibility of polymers, Todaro has opened new pathways for conformable electronics, with direct applications in wearable health monitors, soft robotics, and self-powered sensors. Her research represents a critical step toward truly flexible, intelligent systems.