In this paper, a novel resonant pressure sensor is developed based on electrostatic excitation and piezoresistive detection. The measured pressure applied to the diaphragm will cause the resonant frequency shift of the resonator. The working mode stress–frequency theory of a double-ended tuning fork with an enhanced coupling beam is proposed, which is compatible with the simulation and experiment. A unique piezoresistive detection method based on small axially deformed beams with a resonant status is proposed, and other adjacent mode outputs are easily shielded. According to the structure design, high-vacuum wafer-level packaging with different doping in the anodic bonding interface is fabricated to ensure the high quality of the resonator. The pressure sensor chip is fabricated by dry/wet etching, high-temperature silicon bonding, ion implantation, and wafer-level anodic bonding. The results show that the fabricated sensor has a measuring sensitivity of ~19 Hz/kPa and a nonlinearity of 0.02% full scale in the pressure range of 0–200 kPa at a full temperature range of −40 to 80 °C. The sensor also shows a good quality factor >25,000, which demonstrates the good vacuum performance. Thus, the feasibility of the design is a commendable solution for high-accuracy pressure measurements.
A high-accuracy differential resonant pressure sensor with two similar resonators is proposed using the linear fitting method to guarantee its output linearity without polynomial compensation. Results reveal that the nonlinearity of the differential resonant pressure sensor is largely dependent on the tensile/compressive sensor pressure–stress ratio c when two similar resonators are used separately as compressive and tensile elements. Nonlinearity decreases sharply with an appropriate ratio c. A theoretical model is proposed to obtain minimal nonlinearity and shows satisfactory agreement with the simulation results. The impact factors of ratio c are analyzed to facilitate adjustments with the designed value. Moreover, micromachining methods are used to fabricate sensing chips. Experiment results show that the nonlinearity and measurement sensitivity of the proposed differential resonant pressure sensor are ±0.02% FS and 35.5 Hz kPa−1 with the linear fitting method in a pressure range of 0–200 kPaA and temperature range of −40 °C to +40 °C. The differential linear fitting method largely decreases compensation complexity without polynomial fitting for high-precision pressure measurement.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.