IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INSTRUMENTATION AND MEASUREMENT, VOL. 69, NO.
4, APRIL 2020
Characterization of a PiezoMUMPs Microsensor
for Contactless Measurements of
DC Electrical Current
Carlo Trigona , Member, IEEE, Valentina Sinatra, Giuseppa Crea, Bruno Andò, Senior Member, IEEE,
and Salvatore Baglio, Fellow, IEEE
Abstract— This paper presents an integrated sensor able to
perform contactless measurements of dc electrical current. The
microsensor conceived is based on the PiezoMUMPs technology
which embeds a layer of piezoelectric material thus offering a
mechanoelectric transduction of the measurand: the dc elec-
trical current flowing into a wire external to the microsensor
is here converted into a voltage signal without the need of
auxiliary polarization signals or integrated inductors/coils as in
the case electrostatic and electromagnetic devices, respectively.
A prototype of the MEMS device has been designed, modeled,
numerically simulated, and then fabricated. A measurement
campaign allowed validating the sensor and to characterize its
performances.
Index Terms— Contactless measurements, dc sensing,
microsensor, PiezoMUMPs, self-generating MEMS.
I. I NTRODUCTION
I N RECENT years, many research efforts have been focused
on the development of sensors and novel transduction meth-
ods for performing current measurements both at macroscale
and microscale [1]. It is in fact important to monitor the dc
electricity consumption in many commercial and industrial
applications, including solar inverter, Internet of Things, auto-
motive, electricity management systems, and home automation
measurements [2]–[4]. Several approaches have been proposed
to perform indirect and contactless current measurement [5];
in particular, noncontact current sensors can be considered the
new generation sensor technology for nonintrusive load moni-
toring (NILM) systems in several relevant environments as for
example maritime vessels [6]. Traditional current sensors are
based on the Hall element placed in the air gap of a magnetic
core, and, typically, in order to improve the linearity, suitable
compensation procedures are implemented [7], [8]. These
solutions find applications in a wide range of measurement
that targets very different current values [9]. However, some
limitations can be listed as the lack of operative range tuning
and the difficulties in realizing MEMS scale current sensors.
This latter limitation is overcome with anisotropic magneto
Manuscript received November 27, 2018; revised February 28, 2019;
accepted March 4, 2019. Date of publication April 15, 2019; date of current
version March 10, 2020. The Associate Editor coordinating the review process
was Wuqiang Yang. (Corresponding author: Carlo Trigona.)
The authors are with the Dipartimento di Ingegneria Elettrica Elettronica
e Informatica (DIEEI), University of Catania, 95125 Catania, Italy (e-mail:
carlo.trigona@dieei.unict.it).
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this article are available
online at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TIM.2019.2908510
0018-9456 © 2019 IEEE. Personal use is permitted, but republication/redistribution requires IEEE permission.
See https://www.ieee.org/publications/rights/index.html for more information.
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1387
resistance (AMR) solutions, as in [10], where coreless mag-
netoresistive current sensors are discussed. The integrated
solution is also insensitive to external fields with a sensitivity
of about 1 mV/A. A sensor bridge is required to convert
the resistive output of the sensor. Giant magneto resistance
(GMR) can be also used for sensing electrical quantities [11];
in particular, in [12], a current sensor is proposed that shows
a resolution of about 0.6 A. It is noteworthy to mention
that several more recent solutions have been presented in the
literature, such as Wu [13] presents a linear current sensor
based on a piezoelectric material. In particular, the sensor
conceived in [13] is composed of a magnetic core made
by a piezoelectric layer sandwiched between two magnetic
layers. It senses the current flowing into a wire located inside
the magnetic ring with sensitivity and resolution of about
1.52 mVpp /Arms and 1.6 Arms , respectively. The advantage
of this device consists in the high quality of the output
signal without the need of sophisticated conditioning circuits.
Ripka et al. [14] propose a macroscale solution to detect static
current where a current feedback strategy is implemented to
improve the linearity of the transducer. The device proposed
in [14] presents higher sensitivity compared with previous
cases (about 100 mV/A) but it requires high power budget
(about 0.5 W). Wang et al. [15] present a millimeter scale,
passive, dc electric current sensor based on a cantilever beam
with a permanent magnet placed on the tip of the microme-
chanical structure. The dc current which flows through the
wire, located in the close proximity of the sensor, induces a
displacement of the beam that in turn is converted into the
output voltage by the piezoelectric layer of the cantilever. The
device presents good performance in terms of both sensitivity
(about 80 mV/A) and linearity. The footprint of the device is
about 4 mm × 4 mm, and the fabrication process requires a
postprocessing step for the deposition of a permanent magnet
in the top of a multispring beam. A downscaled prototype
(MEMS) is presented in [16]: a silicon-based piezoelectric
current sensor has been developed in order to monitor the
energy usage in an electric building. The device consists into
a cantilever beam with a permanent magnet, used both as
inertial mass and as sensitive element. In the presence of a
static or variable current, flowing into a wire in the close
proximity of the sensor, the magnet couples to the magnetic
field produced by the current resulting into a force applied
to the cantilever that induces vibrations at the frequency of
the input signal. The main advantages of the proposed device
1388 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INSTRUMENTATION AND MEASUREMENT, VOL. 69, NO. 4, APRIL 2020

concern its reduced dimension and the fabrication process moving particle, and this behavior is modeled by the following
that does not include active materials to convert the measured equation:
current into an output voltage. −
→
However, a postprocessing procedure has to be accounted to FL = q · ( E + v × B)
 (1)
deposit a magnetic layer to implement the coupling between where q is the charge of the particle, E is the electric field, v
the MEMS device and the external current. Sensitivity and is the velocity of the particle, and B is the magnetic induction.
resolution have been estimated to about 2 μm/A and about Here, we assume that E is absent and an electrical current I
0.5 A at 50 Hz, respectively. In [17], an integrated U-shaped is driven into an electrical wire. Taking also into account that
has been presented that detects constant electrical currents with current I can be described as
an optical readout. The sensor is able to measure current-flux
density produced by using the Lorentz force principle; in I = λ
v (2)
particular, a measurement range of about 2.2 mA·T has been
in which λ is a free charge having velocity v, in a section dl,
achieved by reading the peak light intensity. In order to convert
the total charge dq can be expressed as
the output of the sensor into a voltage signal, an external
active conditioning circuit is required. In [18], a U-shaped dq = λdl (3)
magnetic field sensor based on the CMOS technology has
been presented. The device can be also used to measure cur- and hence the expression of the Lorentz force becomes
rents, and it uses a resistive readout (integrated strain gages), d F = dq v × B = λdl v × B.
 (4)
as consequence an integrated conditioning circuit has been also
developed by the authors in order to convert the mechanical The net force can be found by integrating (4)

displacement into a voltage signal.
In this paper, we propose a novel integrated piezoelectric F = dl I × B = I L B (5)
microsensor based on the PiezoMUMPs technology [19],
designed and fabricated with applications to the field of where L is the length in which I and B are perpendicular.
resonant sensors for contactless measurements of electrical In detail, this sensor is based on the interaction between
currents. It should be noted that few studies have been found an unknown electrical current I that produces the magnetic
in the literature to deal with the development of microma- induction B and a known current Icant driven through a silicon
chined sensors based on the PiezoMUMPs technology. In this cantilever beam. The Lorentz force acting on the cantilever can
specific case, this paper builds up and extends the results be, therefore, written as follows:
  
presented in [20], where some preliminary results, concerning μ 
I
FL = ( Icant × B) · L = Icant × 0
a microsensor for the contactless measurement of currents, · ·L
2π r
have been presented. This paper reports the current stage of
μ0
an activity that has been developed in several years. The = · Icant · I · L · sin θ. (6)
major contribution to the community of instrumentation and 2πr
measurements consists in the demonstration, from a theoretical The wire with the unknown current is placed at a distance
and experimental point of view, of the possibility to use an r from the cantilever. The cantilever considered in this paper
integrated fabrication process to realize a microscale measure- consists in a U-shaped beam. The Lorentz force in (6) deforms
ment system able to detect dc current with several intriguing the microelectromechanical structure, and the resulting dis-
advantages, such as: tunable range; a simple readout (without placement of the cantilever tip will be a function of the current
the need of additional conditioning circuit); a mechanically to be measured.
robust structure (U-shaped device); contactless working mode It is interesting to observe that the oriented indica-
(the measurements can be performed at few millimeter of dis- tion of the unknown current and of the electrical current
tance from the electrical wire where the current flows); ability into the MEMS device directs the Lorentz force, as illus-
to generate an electrical voltage via the adoption of an embed- trated in Fig. 1(a). Moreover, the U-shaped beam cantilever
ded aluminum nitride (AlN) piezoelectric layer without the exhibits a dynamic behavior which can be depicted using the
need of postprocessing deposition. Interesting performances well-known equivalent mass-spring system equation [21]:
have been obtained in terms of operative range (adjustable), in detail, this system can be modeled with the second-order
noise level (∼22.6 μV), and resolution (≈0.3 A). The design differential equation
concepts of the microsensor are presented here together with
m z̈ + d ż + V (t) + kz = FL (t). (7)
the validation of the working principle through the analytical
model and FEM simulations. Moreover, several experimental It is essential to highlight here that the electrical current to
results and characterization diagrams are reported that, when be evaluated is converted in a force, then into a displacement
compared with the theoretical model, show the suitability of z of the cantilever beam free end, and finally into a voltage
the proposed approach. through the use of a piezoelectric material composing the
MEMS device [22] and whose behavior can be described as
II. W ORKING P RINCIPLE AND M ODELING follows:
  
The current sensor presented in this paper exploits the
Lorentz force exerted by magnetic induction on a charged V (t) = ż − V (t)/RC . (8)

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TRIGONA et al.: CHARACTERIZATION OF A PiezoMUMPs MICROSENSOR 1389

TABLE I
L IST OF U SED PARAMETERS

Fig. 1. (a) Working principle. (b) Focus on the geometrical parameters.

In addition, in order to complete the model and to match it with

the experimental results, another equation has been introduced

Ṽ (t) = V (t) + α (9)

in which an offset, indicated with α and expressed in volt, has

been added to the simulated output voltage, V (t), since the
model does not take into consideration the noise level.
In relation to (6), B is the magnetic induction generated
by a steady current I , that is the dc electrical current to be
measured, in according to the Bio–Savart law; r is the distance 2 E 2 (Te − Ti )
Icant = × = × CAl × m Al ×
between the electrical wire in which I is passing and the tip Rbeam t Rbeam t
sensor, μ0 is the vacuum permeability, Icant is the current (11)
injected into the MEMS device itself, and L is the top beam
where Rbeam = 0.87  is the input resistance, and CAl =
length [l4 shown in Fig. 1(b)]. θ is the angle between the
0.9 × 103 J/(kg·◦ C) and m Al = 2.56 × 10−9 kg are the specific
magnetic field vector and the beam length vector, here we
heat and the mass of the aluminum (Al) layer, respectively,
assume θ = 90◦ and, therefore, sin(θ ) = 1. The amplitude of
Te = 660 ◦ C and Ti = 25 ◦ C are the aluminum melting
the beam deflection z depends on the Lorentz force amplitude,
point and the room temperature, at last t has been fixed
which is proportional to the product between Icant and B.
at 15 s. It is invaluable to underline that t has been chosen
Furthermore, current Icant , generated into the U-shaped beam
in order to analyze the spectrum of the output signal to low
cantilever, can be either a dc or ac current: in this latter case,
frequency. The inertial mass has been determined considering
if the micromechanical structure is exposed to an excitation
the following equation:
source with a frequency equal to its resonant frequency, as a
consequence, the beam will have the maximum deflection m = ρSi × V = ρSi × tSibulk × l2 × l5 (12)
at its tip. For this reason, in general, an ac current, having
in which ρSi = 2329 kg/m3
is the silicon density, whereas the
a specific condition in terms of frequency and amplitude,
other parameters are indicated in Section III.
is adopted preferably in order to obtain a more sensitive output
In relation to the parameters determined experimentally,
response. In relation to (7), m is the inertial mass of the
output capacitor C has been calculated through an LCR
microelectromechanical structure, d represents the damping
meter, in particular Automatic LCR Meter 4225 Wayne Keer.
coefficient,  is the damping term caused by the piezoelectric
As regards the output resistance R, it has been approximated
transduction, and k is the mechanical stiffness. Furthermore,
at 1 M, resistance of the probe. The mechanical damping
FL (t) represents the Lorentz force, whereas z̈, ż, and z are
[23], d, and the piezoelectric damping [24], , have been
the acceleration, the velocity, and the displacement ofthe
determined by the literature.
cantilever tip, respectively. Eventually, in relation to (8), is
Finally, in relation to (9), α parameter has been estimated
the coupling constant and RC is the load of the piezoelectric
experimentally, and it corresponds with the noise level mea-
stack. In addition, V (t) and V̇ (t) represent the voltage and its
sured.
first derivative in the output of the piezoelectric layer. In detail,
All parameters listed in Table I allowed implementing the
all parameters describing the previous equations are listed
model described by (6)–(9), as shown in Fig. 2. It is important
below and their values, originated by the model, experiment,
to underline that the simulated output voltage values have
and literature, are indicated in Table I.
been carried out extracting the peak value of the fast Fourier
In order to compute the current into the cantilever, Icant ,
transform (FFT) pertinent to the sinusoidal output voltage in
the power expression has been considered, and in particular,
the range [0–8 A].
the assumption of equality between mechanical and thermal
powers has been imposed
III. D ESIGN AND FABRICATION
E 1 The device has been fabricated by using the PiezoMUMPs
P = = Rbeam Icant
2
(10)
t 2 technology [19]. In this process, a silicon-on-insulator (SOI)

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1390 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INSTRUMENTATION AND MEASUREMENT, VOL. 69, NO. 4, APRIL 2020
Fig. 2. Simulated behavior of the current sensor.
Fig. 3. Cross-sectional view of the PiezoMUMPs technology [19], [25] (not
in scale).
Fig. 4. Layout of device.
wafer is used as substrate with specific characteristics in
terms of thickness. After having doped the top surface of
the Si layer and grown a thermal oxide with a thickness
of 200 nm, a piezoelectric layer in AlN of 0.5 μm is deposited.
At last, a metal stack composed of 20-nm chrome and
1000-nm aluminum is set down. The etching process is
performed with deep reactive ion etch (RIE) and described
in Fig. 3.
The AlN layer is used to generate an electric output: this
aspect represents the most important advantage in this process,
because an electric signal is directly available in the output of
the sensor. In this manner, the sensor output is not correlated
with the variation of resistance (resistive output) or capacitance
(capacitive output).
The layout of the sensor has been realized by using
MEMSPro as the CAD design tool. The layout of the whole
die is shown in Fig. 4. Several devices having different lengths
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TABLE II
D EVICE PARAMETERS
Fig. 5. (a) Geometry in Comsol Multiphysics. (b) Focus on the suspended
structure.
and widths have been designed, and some of them have already
been characterized [19].
In this paper, we have focused our attention to the device
circled in Fig. 4, whose parameters are indicated in Fig. 1(b)
and listed in Table II. By using the equivalent section method
[26], [27], the elastic constant k and afterward the natural
frequency f n have been calculated as k = 5.74 N/m and f n =
1.39 kHz, respectively. In addition, the theoretical resistance
beam, Rbeam of 0.87 , has been estimated taking account
into R = 0.055 /Sq.
IV. N UMERICAL A NALYSIS
In this section, finite-element model simulations imple-
mented in Comsol Multiphysics environment (5.1 Version)
and related to the U-shaped beam cantilever are presented in
order to obtain a closer view of the device behaviors in terms
of the displacement and the stress. In Fig. 5(a), the device
geometry is illustrated where layers of thin silicon, AlN and
aluminum for the suspend structure [shown in Fig. 5(b)], and
thick silicon for the inertial mass are considered. In order to
proceed with the FEM analysis, an appropriate mesh has been
realized [see Fig. 6(a)] contemplating different dimensions of
the layers and of the inertial mass, and especially it has been
TRIGONA et al.: CHARACTERIZATION OF A PiezoMUMPs MICROSENSOR
Fig. 6. (a) Mesh of the designed geometry in Comsol Multiphysics.
(b) Focus on the critical points.
Fig. 7. Displacement as a function of the frequency.
tightened in correspondence with the critical points which are
the corners, as depicted in Fig. 6(b).
In order to reduce the computational burden, the whole
geometry has been divided in two domains: the first includes
the three layers composing the U-shaped beam cantilever and
the second one is related only to the inertial mass. An opti-
mized mesh has been obtained, indeed its implementation has
been densed along the layers (in this case, a fitted mesh
has been considered), whereas it has been approximate in
correspondence with the inertial mass. (In this case, a normal
mesh has been imposed.) In detail, a free mesh has been
chosen, and it consists of 44 519 elements of which the
tetrahedral (tets) mesh elements are 28 844, the triangular mesh
elements are 14 163, the mesh edges are 1471, and eventually,
the mesh vertices are 41.
Afterward, an analysis in the frequency domain has been
selected in order to estimate the natural frequency and to
confirm the value previously indicated by the model. In Fig. 7,
the cantilever tip displacement as a function of the frequency
is displayed; it is worth to underline that the two natural
frequencies, the first determined with the equivalent section
method and the second simulated in Comsol Multiphysics,
are corresponding. The analysis in the frequency domain has
been carried out adopting a Lorentz force, having an amplitude
of 30 nN, applied to the cantilever tip in the z-direction; this
Lorentz force value has been imposed using parameters values
indicated earlier.
In addition, an eigen frequency analysis, considering the
first six frequencies, has been realized in order to evaluate
the oscillation modes of the U-shaped beam cantilever. This
analysis acquires a relevant significance since the performance
of a piezoelectric material is correlated with the velocity,
as indicated previously in (8). Symmetry in the structure has
been exploited such to avoid even-order oscillation modes.
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1391
Fig. 8. Cantilever tip displacement as a function of f 1 = 1.38 kHz.
Fig. 9. (a) von Mises stress as a function of f 1 = 1.38 kHz. (b) Focus on
the most stressed points.
Fig. 10. Cantilever tip displacement as a function of f 3 = 11.806 kHz.
In particular, the first, third, and fifth oscillation modes
have been estimated, and for each value of frequency, the
displacement and the von Mises stress, expressed in [m]
and in [N/m2 ], respectively, have been plotted. The eigen
frequency analysis has returned the following frequencies:
f 1 = 1.38 kHz for the first mode, f 3 = 11.8 kHz for the third
mode, and at last f 5 = 43 kHz for the fifth mode. In Fig. 8,
the cantilever tip displacement in correspondence with f1 is
shown, whereas the von Mises stress and a focus on the most
stressed points are illustrated in Fig. 9(a) and (b).
The largest displacement is observable on the cantilever
tip with an amplitude of 281 nm in the z-direction, and the
maximum von Mises stress is obtained in correspondence with
the anchors and it has a value of 410 kN/m2 .
In relation to the third oscillation mode with f 3 = 11.8 kHz,
the highest displacement is present on the cantilever tip with a
value of 32.8 nm (as illustrated in Fig. 10), whereas in Fig. 11,
the von Mises stress with a maximum value of 1.96 MN/m2
is shown.
In this case, the micromechanical structure is char-
acterized by the highest displacement in correspondence
with the inertial mass; however, a minor contribution
1392 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INSTRUMENTATION AND MEASUREMENT, VOL. 69, NO. 4, APRIL 2020
Fig. 11. von Mises stress as a function of f 3 = 11.806 kHz.
Fig. 12. (a) Critical section in relation to the von Mises stress at f 3 =
11.806 kHz. (b) Zoomed-in view of the critical points.
Fig. 13. Cantilever tip displacement as a function of f 5 = 43 kHz.
is observable long the arms too. This is because the oscil-
lation mode is changed involving, in a curve, the central
section of the arms (shown in Fig. 11). In relation to the
von Mises stress, it is appropriate to observe that the critical
points are changed due to the variation of the oscillation mode
and the overall value of the von Mises stress is increased.
Because of this, a focus about it has been considered necessary
and illustrated in Fig. 12(a) and (b).
Finally, the fifth oscillation mode, having a frequency of
f 5 = 43 kHz, has been considered and the following two
trends (see Figs. 13 and 14) in terms of the displacement
and the von Mises stress have been determined. In detail,
in Fig. 13, the displacement affects essentially the central
section of the U-shaped beam cantilever and it presents a
maximum value of 0.77 nm. Furthermore, the curve of arms
is similar to the previous case (as illustrated in Fig. 14);
however, the variation of the position in the inertial mass is
neglectful because a lower displacement is impressed to arms.
As regards the fifth oscillation mode, the von Mises stress
exhibits the same critical points in comparison with the third
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Fig. 14. von Mises stress as a function of f 5 = 43 kHz.
Fig. 15. Die and details on the U-shaped beam cantilever.
mode; nevertheless, the maximum value is lower and equal to
102 kN/m2 .
It is extremely fascinating to note that the whole dis-
placement ranges from [0.77–561 nm] considering the three
oscillation modes. However, taking into account that the output
voltage in a piezoelectric material is correlated with the
frequency, a tradeoff with the displacement is essential; for
this reason, judging the displacement in the fifth oscillation
mode comparable with a noise level, the contribution of
the fifth mode has been neglected, and the characterization
of the microelectromechanical structure has been performed
considering only the first mode at frequency f 1 = 1.38 kHz
and the third mode at frequency f3 = 11.806 kHz.
V. E XPERIMENTAL S ETUP
An appropriate experimental setup has been implemented
in order to characterize the Lorentz force sensor. (The die
is shown in Fig. 15.) The die has dimensions 11.15 mm ×
11.15 mm; however, the active area, in which all devices have
been realized, is equal to 9.65 mm × 9.65 mm. Furthermore,
the PCB board, in which the die is packaged and bonded, has
dimension 50 mm × 48 mm.
The study of the U-shaped beam cantilever is focused on
the characterization as current sensor; therefore, an electrical
wire, having a diameter of 0.15 mm, has been placed at the
distance of r = 1 mm from the device, and the dc current to be
measured is passed through it (Fig. 16) by using a controlled
reference voltage source. A signal generator is used to drive
the current through the MEMS sensor to obtain the Lorentz
force. The whole experimental setup is presented in Fig. 17,
where an Agilent 33220A function waveform is used to drive
a sinusoidal current into the device and an Infiniium
MSO9064A oscilloscope is needed to monitor the output
signal (Vout ). A dc current has to be measured; hence,
TRIGONA et al.: CHARACTERIZATION OF A PiezoMUMPs MICROSENSOR
Fig. 16. Packaged and bonded die with the electrical wire located at the
distance of 1 mm from the U-shaped beam cantilever.
Fig. 17. Experimental setup.
Fig. 18. Focus on the input sinusoidal current into the MEMS device.
a power supply, specifically K.E.R.T. System 420 Professional,
is employed to force a known dc current into an electrical wire,
located at 1 mm of distance from the sensor.
Moreover, in order to validate the amplitude of the sinu-
soidal current impressed to the prototype for preserving the
MEMS device, a digital multimeter ISO-TECH IDM 101 is
used. Indeed, a theoretical calculation has been carried out and
a maximum current value of 15 mAP has been determined. For
this reason, the function waveform has been set in order to
generate a sinusoidal voltage having an amplitude of 20 VPP ,
and a resistor having a value of 680  has been connected
in series with the input device (see Fig. 18): in this way,
a sinusoidal current having an amplitude of 30 mAPP is driven
into the U-shaped beam cantilever.
VI. R ESULTS
In this section, the results achieved analyzing the first and
the third oscillation modes are illustrated.
At the beginning, the experimental resistance beam, Rbeam
of 2.3 , has been estimated through the digital multimeter
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1393
Fig. 19. Experimental comparison between the first and the third oscillation
modes.
Fig. 20. Output signal (Vout ) in logarithm as a function of the logarithm of
the frequency.
ISO-TECH IDM 101. Afterward, the experimental mechan-
ical frequencies of the U-shaped beam cantilever have been
estimated: in detail, this has been done by evaluating the
root-mean-square (rms) value of the output voltage signal for
different frequency values oscillating around the theoretical
values. The two experimental mechanical frequencies have
been identified at f 1 = 1.4 kHz for the first mode and at
f 3 = 10.3 kHz for the third mode. The next step is concerned
about the experimental comparison between two oscillation
modes evaluating the voltage in the output of the piezoelectric
layer; for this reason, the same operative conditions have been
repeated, or rather, a sinusoidal current driven into the MEMS
device having an amplitude of 30 mAPP and a dc electrical
current into the electrical wire with a range [0–8 A]. In Fig. 19,
the output voltage as a function of the current passing through
the electrical wire and varying into the range [0–8 A] is shown
for each excitation frequency: it is intriguing to observe that
the third oscillation mode (in green) exhibits a better response
in terms of sensitivity than the first one (in red).
These results allowed explaining and to verify experimen-
tally why the authors have decided to analyze both modes:
indeed, although the first oscillation mode produces the highest
displacement, the output voltage of the piezoelectric stack
is correlated with the velocity too [as described in (8)];
therefore, a tradeoff between two parameters, displacement
and frequency, has to be found in order to achieve the
best performance. This condition is fulfilled with the third
oscillation mode, and for this reason, the authors have chosen
to continue the sensor characterization examining in depth the
third oscillation mode exclusively.
In particular, to be thorough, in relation to the experimental
mechanical frequency in the third oscillation mode, some of
the experimentally measured data are reported in Fig. 20,
1394 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INSTRUMENTATION AND MEASUREMENT, VOL. 69, NO. 4, APRIL 2020
Fig. 21. Output voltage of the microsensor with all ten measurements and
their dispersion for each dc current.
Fig. 22. Transduction diagram of the microsensor.
where the output signal (Vout ), expressed in logarithm, is
shown as a function of the frequency of the bias current
driven through the U-shaped beam cantilever. The amplitude
of the bias current is kept constant to 30 mAPP , whereas
the external dc current in the electrical wire (I ) is fixed to
4 A. Therefore, in order to characterize the working region
of the device with the highest responsivity of the MEMS
sensor, a sinusoidal current, with an amplitude of 30 mAPP
and a frequency of 10.3 kHz, is applied to the U-shaped beam
cantilever, while a dc current in [0–8 A] range is imposed in
the electrical wire (I ). It is interesting to highlight that for each
dc current value, ten measurements are collected, and, later,
the mean value is determined. In Fig. 21, the output voltage
of the microsensor is illustrated having a quasi-linear trend in
all the range [0–8 A].
The same graph is also shown including the uncer-
tainty band of 3σ shown in Fig. 22, where the σ value
of 42.9 × 10−6 V has been estimated and a responsivity of
80.8 × 10−6 V/A has been evaluated. In accordance with
the regulation UNI CEI ENV 13005, the type-A uncertainty
has been estimated experimentally, and a maximum value of
8.3 × 10−6 V has been evaluated.
In order to characterize the device in terms of resolution a
noise level, specified in standard deviation and expressed in
volt has been estimated experimentally and a value of 22.6 μV
has been carried out. Therefore, it has been possible to deter-
mine the resolution in ampere considering the ratio between
the noise level [V] and the responsivity [V/A] and obtaining
a resolution value of 0.28 A.
A good matching between the model and the experimental
results has been obtained; in fact, the simulated output voltage
values have been overlapped to the transduction diagram
shown in Fig. 22, thus verifying the validation of the model.
Mean value represents the average value of the ten measure-
ments collected for each dc current values and expressed as
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follows:
 
10
Mean Value = X n /10 (13)
n=1
where X n represent the measurements for each value of
current.
The sensor current presented in this paper is a tunable
device: it is sufficient to change the amplitude of the sinusoidal
current driven into the U-shaped beam cantilever (fixed in this
paper case to 30 mAPP ) to modify the operative range; indeed,
in according to (6), a variation of the current into the MEMS
introduces a shift of the operating region in order to keep
constant the Lorentz force, FL . This characteristic represents
one of the most remarkable advantages of this sensor, making
it opposite to other sensor topologies, for instance, the Hall
effect sensors, where the operative range is established and
intrinsic in the structure.
In order to conclude the results section, it can be appreciable
to note the following.
1) The natural frequency, f n , has been estimated in
three different environments verifying a match among
the modeling ( f n = 1.39 kHz), the numerical
( f n = 1.38 kHz), and the experimental ( f n ≈ 1.4 kHz).
2) The frequency of the third oscillation mode has been
determined numerically ( f 3 = 11.806 kHz) and con-
firmed experimentally ( f 3 = 10.3 kHz).
3) The mechanical stiffness has been calculated in all
three approaches finding k = 5.74 N/m in the model,
k = 5.60 N/m in the FEM analysis, and k = 5.766 N/m
in the experiment.
VII. C ONCLUSION
An integrated microsensor for measuring dc electrical cur-
rent based on the Lorentz force has been presented in this
paper. The PiezoMUMPs technology has been used for the
fabrication of a U-shaped beam microcantilever. MEMSPro
has been the CAD tool used for the device layout design.
The most interesting advantage is represented by the pos-
sibility, offered by the piezoelectric material embedded in
the PiezoMUMPs technology, to convert the measurand in an
electric signal straight available in the output of the sensor. For
this reason, since the output voltage in a piezoelectric material
is correlated with the frequency, an FEM analysis has been
carried out in order to analyze the first three odd oscillation
modes: the first and the third modes have produced promising
results because a tradeoff with the displacement is invaluable,
whereas the fifth mode has been rejected seeing as how the
displacement comparable with a noise level. Initially, a com-
parison between the two frequencies evaluated experimentally
and estimated at f 1 = 1.4 kHz and f 3 = 10.3 kHz in terms of
sensor response allowed selecting the third oscillation mode
in order to obtain the best performance.
The current sensor presented here is able to adapt the opera-
tive range of the dc electrical current to be measured changing
the amplitude of the sinusoidal current driven into the micro-
mechanical structure. Considering an amplitude of 30 mAPP
related to the current into the U-shaped beam cantilever an
TRIGONA et al.: CHARACTERIZATION OF A PiezoMUMPs MICROSENSOR
operative range [0–8 A] has been identified. Furthermore,
the working principle, the model, and the transduction mech-
anism have been validated, and the results obtained encourage
pursuing efforts to optimize the device design in order to
improve the performances. Further research efforts are ongoing
in order to develop an optimized MEMS current sensor with
the piezoelectric transduction mechanism for measuring both
ac and dc current flows.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors would like to thank A. Russo, who collaborates
with the National Institute of Nuclear Physics (INFN), Catania,
Italy, in setting up the finite-element analysis.
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Carlo Trigona (M’16) received the M.S. degree in
automation engineering and control of complex sys-
tems and the Ph.D. degree in electronic, automation
and control of complex systems from the University
of Catania, Catania, Italy, in 2006 and 2009, respec-
tively.
From 2010 to 2011, he was a Post-Doctoral
Researcher and a Lecturer with the Laboratoire
d’Informatique, de Robotique et de Microélec-
tronique de Montpellier, University Montpellier II,
Montpellier, France. From 2011 to 2017, he was a
Post-Doctoral Researcher and a Lecturer with the Dipartimento di Ingegneria
Elettrica Elettronica e Informatica (DIEEI), University of Catania. From
2017 to 2018, he was a Post-Doctoral Researcher with the Chemnitz Univer-
sity of Technology, Chemnitz, Germany. He is currently an Assistant Professor
of electronic instrumentation and measurements with DIEEI. He has coau-
thored more than 130 scientific publications, which include chapters in books,
papers in international journals, and proceedings of international conferences.
His current research interests include sensors, transducers, microsystems,
microsensors, fluxgate magnetometers, and energy harvesting.
Dr. Trigona received the National Scientific Habilitation to be an Associate
Professor in 2017.
Valentina Sinatra was born in Catania, Italy, in
1982. She received the M.S. degree in microelec-
tronic engineering from the University of Catania,
Catania, in 2013, where she is currently pursuing
the Ph.D. degree with a focus on magnetic sensors.
Ms. Sinatra received the title of Specialist in Micro
and Nano Technologies for Integrated Biosensors in
Diagnostic Applications in 2015.
1396 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INSTRUMENTATION AND MEASUREMENT, VOL. 69, NO. 4, APRIL 2020
Giuseppa Crea was born in Messina, Italy, in 1990.
She received the B.S. in electronic engineering from
the University of Messina, Messina, in 2015. She
is currently pursuing the master’s degree with the
University of Catania, Catania, Italy, with a focus
on experimental thesis in the design and characteri-
zation of microsensors.
Bruno Andò (SM’13) received the M.S. degree
in electronic engineering and the Ph.D. degree in
electrical engineering from the Università di Catania,
Catania, Italy, in 1994 and 1999, respectively.
From 1999 to 2001, he was a Researcher with
the Electrical and Electronic Measurement Group,
Dipartimento Elettrico Elettronico e Sistemistico,
University of Catania, where he became an Assis-
tant Professor in 2002. He has coauthored several
scientific papers presented in international confer-
ences and published in international journals and
books. His current research interests include sensor design and optimiza-
tion, advanced multisensor architecture for ambient-assisted living, sensor
networks, characterization of new materials for sensors, nonlinear techniques
for signal processing with particular interest in stochastic resonance, dithering
applications, and distributed measurement systems.
Authorized licensed use limited to: University of Catania. Downloaded on April 05,2023 at 15:01:00 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
Salvatore Baglio (F’13) received the Laurea degree
in electronic engineering and the Ph.D. degree in
electrical engineering from the University of Cata-
nia, Catania, Italy, in 1900 and 1994, respectively.
He is currently a Full Professor of instrumentation
and measurements with the Dipartimento di Ingegne-
ria Elettrica Elettronica e Informatica (DIEEI), Uni-
versity of Catania. He teaches courses in electronic
measurements systems and micro- and nanosensors.
He is a Principal Investigator in several scientific
research projects dealing with the development of
innovative sensor systems, granted by private companies and by different
national and international institutions. He is also a member of the Board
of Ph.D. course in electronic and automation engineering with the University
of Catania. He has authored more than 350 scientific publications including
international journals, books, conferences, and patents. His current research
interests include the development of measurement methodologies and systems
based on nonlinear dynamics, development of micro- and nanosensors and
transducers, exploitation of material properties toward integrated transducers,
and nonlinear methodologies and integrated devices for energy harvesting.
Dr. Baglio is a member of the I&M Society AdCom where he served for VP
Education from 2016 to 2017 and as an Executive for VP in 2018. He is an
Editor-in-Chief of the I&M Video Tutorials and an Associate Editor in Chief
of the IEEE T RANSACTIONS ON I NSTRUMENTATION AND M EASUREMENTs.