A high-performance planar piezoresistive accelerometer

Partridge, A.; Reynolds, J.K.; Chui, Benjamin W.; Chow, Eugene M.; Fitzgerald, Alissa M.; Zhang, L.; Maluf, N.I.; Kenny, Tom

doi:10.1109/84.825778

Cited by 168 publications

(93 citation statements)

References 15 publications

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“…The first source, termed Johnson noise, represents random noise derived from the thermal properties of a resistor (Senturia 2001). Johnson noise is constant over all frequencies and is theoretically estimated to be 7 nV for the piezoresistors implanted in the accelerometer's flexural element (Partridge et al 2000). The second noise source, termed Hooge noise, is inversely proportional to frequency.…”

Section: Piezoresistive Accelerometer Validationmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Design of Piezoresistive MEMS-Based Accelerometer for Integration with Wireless Sensing Unit for Structural Monitoring

et al. 2003

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Abstract:The use of advanced embedded system technologies such as microelectromechanical system (MEMS) sensors and wireless communications hold great promise for measuring the response of civil structures to ambient and external disturbances. In this paper, the design of a high-performance planar piezoresistive MEMS accelerometer is discussed in detail. The piezoresistive accelerometer possesses superior performance characteristics including low noise densities when measuring local structural responses characterized by high-frequency content. A low-cost wireless sensing unit, designed for automated structural monitoring, is utilized to record and wirelessly transmit measurements obtained by the piezoresistive accelerometer. To validate the performance of the wireless monitoring system including the interfaced piezoresistive accelerometer, a five degree-offreedom laboratory test structure is utilized. Introduction:The field of structural engineering can gain great benefit by embracing new technologies being developed in related fields such as microelectromechanical system (MEMS) sensors and wireless communications. One area where advanced technology can have an immediate impact is in improving the current state-of-practice of structural monitoring systems. The importance of structural monitoring is growing due to the recognition that monitoring is an effective vehicle for advancing our understanding of civil structures and their response to external loads. For example, research directed towards developing performance-based earthquake engineering design criteria can benefit from wide-spread use of monitoring systems because they provide empirical data for validation of structural and statistical models. Structural monitoring systems are also required for the acquisition of real-time response time-histories that are used by structural health monitoring algorithms to rapidly identify potential damages in a structural system.

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Section: Piezoresistive Accelerometer Validationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Departing from the Roylance design, a lateral in-plane accelerometer that can exploit the use of DRIE fabrication techniques is examined (Partridge et al 2000). The design of the planar accelerometer is straightforward.…”

Section: Design Of a Piezoresistive Accelerometermentioning

confidence: 99%

Design of Piezoresistive MEMS-Based Accelerometer for Integration with Wireless Sensing Unit for Structural Monitoring

et al. 2003

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“…Rajaraman et al developed a highly sensitive flexible piezoresistive sensor, which can be used to sense vibration with a full scale acceleration range of 2g. 16,17 An acceleration sensor with sensing axis in the plane of a wafer also has been proposed by Partridge et al 18,19 They used a DRIE to form arbitrarily sharp planar flexures with vertical sidewalls. Oblique incidence ion implantation was used to dope the piezoresistors on the sidewalls of the etched structures.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Frontside-micromachined planar piezoresistive vibration sensor: Evaluating performance in the low frequency test range

Zhang

Takagi

et al. 2014

AIP Advances

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Articles you may be interested inUsing a surface piezoresistor diffusion method and front-side only micromachining process, a planar piezoresistive vibration sensor was successfully developed with a simple structure, lower processing cost and fewer packaging difficulties. The vibration sensor had a large sector proof mass attached to a narrow flexure. Optimization of the boron diffusion piezoresistor placed on the edge of the narrow flexure greatly improved the sensitivity. Planar vibration sensors were fabricated and measured in order to analyze the effects of the sensor dimensions on performance, including the values of flexure width and the included angle of the sector. Sensitivities of fabricated planar sensors of 0.09-0.46 mV/V/g were measured up to a test frequency of 60 Hz. The sensor functioned at low voltages (<3 V) and currents (<1 mA) with a high sensitivity and low drift. At low background noise levels, the sensor had performance comparable to a commercial device. C 2014 Author(s)

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“…Microcantilevers have been utilized in many other applications besides gas sensing such as atomic-force microscopes (AFM) (Albrecht, 1990), accelerometers (Kim, 1995), etc. The majority of microcantilevers fabricated, to date, use a symmetric geometry for the base of the cantilever beam (Su, 2003;Lavrik, 2004;Xu, 2006;Lee, 2003) and a piezoresistive or piezoelectric sensing element (Partridge, 2000;Wang, 2003). For example, previous work by our group involved the fabrication of a T-shaped piezoresistive sensing element at the base of the cantilever for performing gas composition analysis (Xu, 2006).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The resonant frequency of the microresonator can be measured through electronic circuitry using the piezoelectric effect (Wang, 2003) or the piezoresistive effect (Partridge, 2000), and can also be measured optically using a laser focused on the vibrating structure (Gupta, 2004).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Alternative piezoresistor designs for maximizing cantilever sensitivity.

Fletcher¹

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APPROVAL PAGEiii Over the last 15 years, researchers have explored the use of piezoresistive microcantilevers/resonators as gas sensors because of their relative ease in fabrication, low production cost, and their ability to detect changes in mass or surface stress with fairly good sensitivity. However, existing microcantilever designs rely on irreversible chemical reactions for detection and researchers have been unable to optimize symmetric geometries for increased sensitivity. Previous work by our group showed the capability of T-shaped piezoresistive cantilevers to detect gas composition using a nonreaction-based method -viscous damping. However, this geometry yielded only small changes in resistance. Recently, computational studies performed by our group indicated that optimizing the geometry of the base piezoresistor increases device sensitivity up to 700 times. Thus, the focus of this work is to improve the sensitivity of nonreaction-based piezoresistive microcantilevers by incorporating asymmetric piezoresistive sensing elements in a new array design.A three-mask fabrication process was performed using a 4" silicon-on-insulator wafer. Gold bond pads and leads were patterned using two optical lithography masks, gold sputtering, and acetone lift-off techniques. The cantilevers were patterned with v electron-beam lithography and a dry etch masking layer was then deposited via electronbeam evaporation of iron. Subsequently, the silicon device layer was deep reactive ion etched (DRIE) to create the vertical sidewalls and the sacrificial silicon dioxide layer was removed with a buffered oxide etch, completely releasing the cantilever structures.Finally, the device was cleaned and dried with critical point drying to prevent stiction of the devices to the substrate. For the resonance experiments, the cantilevers were driven electrostatically by applying an AC bias, 10 V pp , to the gate electrode. A DC bias of 10 V was placed across the piezoresistor in series with a 14 kΩ resistor. The drive frequency (0 -80 kHz) was swept until the cantilever resonated at its natural frequency, which occurred when the output of the lock-in amplifier reached its maximum. These devices have been actuated to resonance under vacuum and their resonant frequencies and Qfactors measured.The first mode of resonance for the asymmetric cantilevers was found to range between 40 kHz and 63 kHz, depending on the piezoresistor geometry and length of the cantilever beam. The redesigned piezoresistive microcantilevers tested yielded static and dynamic sensitivities ranging from 1-6 Ω/µm and 2-17 Ω/µm displacement, respectively, which are 40 -730 times more sensitive than the best symmetric design previously reported by our group. Furthermore, the Q-factors ranged between 1700 and 4200, typical values for MEMS microcantilevers.vi = maximum resistance at deflection Δx R 1 = resistance at resonance RF = radio frequency Rpm = rotations per minute sccm = standard cubic centimeters per minute SEM = scanning electron microscope SOI = silicon-on-ins...

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A high-performance planar piezoresistive accelerometer

Cited by 168 publications

References 15 publications

Design of Piezoresistive MEMS-Based Accelerometer for Integration with Wireless Sensing Unit for Structural Monitoring

Design of Piezoresistive MEMS-Based Accelerometer for Integration with Wireless Sensing Unit for Structural Monitoring

Frontside-micromachined planar piezoresistive vibration sensor: Evaluating performance in the low frequency test range

Alternative piezoresistor designs for maximizing cantilever sensitivity.

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