Resonant Pressure Sensing Using a Micromechanical Cantilever Actuated by Fringing Electrostatic Fields

Published

April 26, 2018

Author(s)

Naftaly Krakover, Robert Ilic, Slava Krylov

Abstract

We demonstrate a pressure sensing approach based on the resonant operation of a single crystal Si cantilever positioned near a flexible, pressurized membrane. The membrane deflection perturbs the electrostatic force acting on the cantilever and consequently alters the beam's resonant frequency. Sensitivity was enhanced by tailoring the actuating force nonlinearities through fringing electrostatic fields. With our coupled micromechanical system, we achieved frequency sensitivity to pressure and displacement of ≈ 30 Hz/kPa and ≈ 4 Hz/nm, respectively. Our results indicate that the suggested approach may have applications not only for pressure measurements, but also in a broad range of microelectromechanical resonant inertial, force, mass and bio sensors.

Proceedings Title

The 31st IEEE International Conference on Micro Electro Mechanical Systems, MEMS 2018

Conference Dates

January 21-25, 2018

Conference Location

Belfast, IE

Pub Type

Conferences

Download Paper

https://doi.org/10.1109/MEMSYS.2018.8346688

Local Download

Keywords

Resonant operation, Pressure sensor, Cantilever, Electrostatic fringing field, MEMS

Citation

Krakover, N. , Ilic, R. and Krylov, S. (2018), Resonant Pressure Sensing Using a Micromechanical Cantilever Actuated by Fringing Electrostatic Fields, The 31st IEEE International Conference on Micro Electro Mechanical Systems, MEMS 2018, Belfast, IE, [online], https://doi.org/10.1109/MEMSYS.2018.8346688, https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=924800 (Accessed April 24, 2024)