Thermal-Performance Instability in Piezoresistive Sensors: Inducement and Improvement

Liu, Yan; Wang, Hai; Zhao, Wei; H, Qin; Fang, Xuan

doi:10.3390/s16121984

Cited by 32 publications

(23 citation statements)

References 120 publications

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“…Piezoresistive pressure sensors have been reported to exhibit thermal dependency similar to that reported by Liu et al [19]. Thermal dependence can have its source either in the Si itself or in the elements used to package the SE.…”

Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 63%

“…This mechanism has been widely studied over the last 50 years, where the mechanical properties of single crystal Si [5][6][7] and its piezoresistive properties at different doping concentrations [8][9][10][11][12] have been well established. Enhanced models, which account for both the anisotropy of Si and thermal effects on the piezoresistivity, have also been recently published [13][14][15][16][17][18][19]. This provides an excellent basis for initial sensor design, but cannot be solely relied upon to accurately predict the output of a complete pressure sensor.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Relative Contributions of Packaging Elements to the Thermal Hysteresis of a MEMS Pressure Sensor

Hamid

Hutt

Whalley

et al. 2020

Sensors

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Piezoresistive silicon pressure sensor samples were thermally cycled after being consecutively packaged to three different levels. These started with the absolute minimum to allow measurement of the output and with each subsequent level incorporating additional packaging elements within the build. Fitting the data to a mathematical function was necessary both to correct for any testing uncertainties within the pressure and temperature controllers, and to enable the identification and quantification of any hysteresis. Without being subjected to any previous thermal preconditioning, the sensors were characterized over three different temperature ranges and for multiple cycles, in order to determine the relative contributions of each packaging level toward thermal hysteresis. After reaching a stabilised hysteretic behaviour, 88.5% of the thermal hysteresis was determined to be related to the bond pads and wire bonds, which is likely to be due to the large thermal mismatch between the silicon and bond pad metallisation. The fluid-fill and isolation membrane contributed just 7.2% of the total hysteresis and the remaining 4.3% was related to the adhesive used for attachment of the sensing element to the housing. This novel sequential packaging evaluation methodology is independent of sensor design and is useful in identifying those packaging elements contributing the most to hysteresis.

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Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 63%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Relative Contributions of Packaging Elements to the Thermal Hysteresis of a MEMS Pressure Sensor

Hamid

Hutt

Whalley

et al. 2020

Sensors

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“…It is observed the decrease in drain current by almost 2 μA for 25 °C temperature difference. This behavior is related to the temperature dependence of the transistors threshold voltage, mobility of the charge carriers as well as the piezoresistive coefficients . This dependence affects the sensor sensitivity and limits its accuracy for changes in temperature.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The output voltage difference is plotted against applied pressure and for different temperatures between 0 and 75 °C. Quarter bridges deliver almost 50% of the sensitivity of the half bridges as it is shown when the output voltage difference of bridge 1 compared to bridge 2 and bridge 3 to bridge 4 respectively. When Figure (a) compared to (b) it is observed that the physical aspect ratio W/L of the reference transistors influences the stress sensitivity of the bridge as well.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Characterisation of MOS Transistors as an Electromechanical Transducer for Stress

Hafez¹,

Haas

Loebel³

et al. 2018

Physica Status Solidi (a)

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The influence of mechanical stress on field effect transistors is investigated using a pressure-deflected membrane for generation various mechanical stresses. It consists of a silicon membrane and transistors, which are designed and manufactured using 1.0 μm-XC10 technology from X-Fab. The transducers for sensing mechanical stress are placed on the edges with the maximum stress. Furthermore, the position is optimized by using FEM simulations (Ansys). Different variances of transistors and the impact on their electrical properties are investigated. Transistors are manufactured with different parameters such as channel lengths, widths, and alignments of the channel current to the direction of the mechanical stress, as well as connecting transistors in Wheatstone-like quarter and half bridges to generate a read-out voltage that is amplified using an integrated operational amplifier on the same chip. The bridge consists of p-MOSFETs as transducers on the membrane and n-MOSFETs as reference transistors (active loads). Transistors bridges are optimized on sensitivity, linearity and temperature behavior by varying channel length (L) and width (W). The influence of the membrane size and deposited technology layers is also investigated. The focus of this publication is presenting an analysis of the electrical behavior of the designed and manufactured transistors for different applied pressures. An experimental setup with a temperature and pressure calibrators is used for characterizing the transducers between 25 and 75 C and up to 1 bar differential pressure.

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“…The resistances of the piezoresistors will be changed by these stresses according to [ 22 ]:

where

is the piezoresistive coefficient with p-type silicon. The relationship between

and

can be given as [ 22 , 23 ].

…”

Section: Working Principle and Methodologymentioning

confidence: 99%

Mechanical Structural Design of a Piezoresistive Pressure Sensor for Low-Pressure Measurement: A Computational Analysis by Increases in the Sensor Sensitivity

Tran

Zhang

Zhu

2018

Sensors

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This paper proposes a novel micro-electromechanical system (MEMS) piezoresistive pressure sensor with a four-petal membrane combined with narrow beams and a center boss (PMNBCB) for low-pressure measurements. The stresses induced in the piezoresistors and deflection of the membrane were calculated using the finite element method (FEM). The functions of the relationship between the dimension variables and mechanical performance were determined based on the curve fitting method, which can provide an approach for geometry optimization of the sensor. In addition, the values in the equations were varied to determine the optimal dimensions for the proposed membrane. Then, to further improve the sensitivity of the sensor, a series of rectangular grooves was created at the position of the piezoresistors. The proposed diaphragm was compared to existing diaphragms, and a considerable increase in the sensitivity and a considerable decrease in nonlinearity error could be achieved by using the proposed sensor. The simulation results suggest that the sensor with the PMNBCB structure obtained a high sensitivity of 34.67 mV/kPa and a low nonlinearity error of 0.23% full-scale span (FSS) for the pressure range of 0–5 kPa. The proposed sensor structure is a suitable selection for MEMS piezoresistive pressure sensors.

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Thermal-Performance Instability in Piezoresistive Sensors: Inducement and Improvement

Cited by 32 publications

References 120 publications

Relative Contributions of Packaging Elements to the Thermal Hysteresis of a MEMS Pressure Sensor

Relative Contributions of Packaging Elements to the Thermal Hysteresis of a MEMS Pressure Sensor

Characterisation of MOS Transistors as an Electromechanical Transducer for Stress

Mechanical Structural Design of a Piezoresistive Pressure Sensor for Low-Pressure Measurement: A Computational Analysis by Increases in the Sensor Sensitivity

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