The Design, Development, and Optimization of a Capacitive Pressure Sensor Utilizing an Existing 9 DOF Platform
Nine Degrees of Freedom (9 DOF) systems are
already in development in many areas. In this paper, an integrated
pressure sensor is proposed that will make use of an already existing
monolithic 9 DOF inertial MEMS platform. Capacitive pressure
sensors can suffer from limited sensitivity for a given size of
membrane. This novel pressure sensor design increases the sensitivity
by over 5 times compared to a traditional array of square diaphragms
while still fitting within a 2 mm x 2 mm chip and maintaining a fixed
static capacitance. The improved design uses one large diaphragm
supported by pillars with fixed electrodes placed above the areas of
maximum deflection. The design optimization increases the
sensitivity from 0.22 fF/kPa to 1.16 fF/kPa. Temperature sensitivity
was also examined through simulation.
[1] W. P. Eaton and J. H. Smith. "Micro machined pressure sensors: review
and recent developments." In Smart Structures and Materials' 97, 1997,
pp. 30-41.
[2] P. Kropelnicki, K. Muckensturm, X. J. Mu, A. B. Randles, H. Cai, W. C.
Ang, J. M. Tsai and H. Vogt. “CMOS-compatible ruggedized hightemperature
Lamb wave pressure sensor.” Journal of Micromechanics
and Micro-engineering, vol. 23, no. 8, 2013, pp. 085018.
[3] I. E. Ocak, D. D. Cheam, S. N. Fernando, A. T. Lin, P. Singh, J. Sharma,
G. L. Chua, B. Chen, A.Y.D. Gu, N. Singh, and D. L. Kwong "A
monolithic 9 degree of freedom (DOF) capacitive inertial MEMS
platform." in Electron Devices Meeting (IEDM), 2014 IEEE
International. San Francisco, 2014, pp. 22-6.
[4] M. Hopcroft, W. D. Nix, and T. W. Kenny. "What is the Young's
Modulus of Silicon?" Micro-electromechanical Systems, Journal of, vol.
19, no. 2, 2010, pp. 229-238.
[5] M. Narducci, L. Yu-Chia, W. Fang, and J. Tsai. "CMOS MEMS
capacitive absolute pressure sensor." Journal of Micromechanics and
Micro-engineering, vol. 23, no. 5, 2013, pp. 055007.
[1] W. P. Eaton and J. H. Smith. "Micro machined pressure sensors: review
and recent developments." In Smart Structures and Materials' 97, 1997,
pp. 30-41.
[2] P. Kropelnicki, K. Muckensturm, X. J. Mu, A. B. Randles, H. Cai, W. C.
Ang, J. M. Tsai and H. Vogt. “CMOS-compatible ruggedized hightemperature
Lamb wave pressure sensor.” Journal of Micromechanics
and Micro-engineering, vol. 23, no. 8, 2013, pp. 085018.
[3] I. E. Ocak, D. D. Cheam, S. N. Fernando, A. T. Lin, P. Singh, J. Sharma,
G. L. Chua, B. Chen, A.Y.D. Gu, N. Singh, and D. L. Kwong "A
monolithic 9 degree of freedom (DOF) capacitive inertial MEMS
platform." in Electron Devices Meeting (IEDM), 2014 IEEE
International. San Francisco, 2014, pp. 22-6.
[4] M. Hopcroft, W. D. Nix, and T. W. Kenny. "What is the Young's
Modulus of Silicon?" Micro-electromechanical Systems, Journal of, vol.
19, no. 2, 2010, pp. 229-238.
[5] M. Narducci, L. Yu-Chia, W. Fang, and J. Tsai. "CMOS MEMS
capacitive absolute pressure sensor." Journal of Micromechanics and
Micro-engineering, vol. 23, no. 5, 2013, pp. 055007.
@article{"International Journal of Electrical, Electronic and Communication Sciences:70647", author = "Andrew Randles and Ilker Ocak and Cheam Daw Don and Navab Singh and Alex Gu", title = "The Design, Development, and Optimization of a Capacitive Pressure Sensor Utilizing an Existing 9 DOF Platform", abstract = "Nine Degrees of Freedom (9 DOF) systems are
already in development in many areas. In this paper, an integrated
pressure sensor is proposed that will make use of an already existing
monolithic 9 DOF inertial MEMS platform. Capacitive pressure
sensors can suffer from limited sensitivity for a given size of
membrane. This novel pressure sensor design increases the sensitivity
by over 5 times compared to a traditional array of square diaphragms
while still fitting within a 2 mm x 2 mm chip and maintaining a fixed
static capacitance. The improved design uses one large diaphragm
supported by pillars with fixed electrodes placed above the areas of
maximum deflection. The design optimization increases the
sensitivity from 0.22 fF/kPa to 1.16 fF/kPa. Temperature sensitivity
was also examined through simulation.", keywords = "Capacitive pressure sensor, 9 DOF, 10 DOF, sensor,
capacitive, inertial measurement unit, IMU, inertial navigation
system, INS.", volume = "9", number = "9", pages = "1035-4", }