Engineering Aspects of sensors

Design concept
Contents
• Capacitive sensors
• Piezo resistive
• Thermal
Basic Principles
• Sensing
• capacitance between moving and fixed plates change as
• distance and position is changed
• media is replaced
• Actuation
• electrostatic force (attraction) between moving and fixed plates as
• a voltage is applied between them
• Two major configurations
• parallel plate capacitor (out of plane)
• interdigitated fingers - IDT (in plane)
Basic Principles

• Parallel Plate Capacitor

• Comb Drive Capacitor
 Basic Principles
• Parallel plate capacitor

Fringe electric field (ignored in first order analysis)

𝑄
C=
𝑉
𝑄
𝐸𝑓 =
𝜀𝐴
𝑄 𝜀𝐴 Equations without considering fringe electric field.
C= 𝑄 =
𝑑 𝑑 In FEM analysis, fringe effect can be adapted
𝜀𝐴
 Basic Principle
• Forces of capacitor actuators
• Stored energy

• Force is derivative of energy with respect

to pertinent dimensional variable

• Plug in the expression for capacitor

• We arrive at the expression for force

Con…
Relative merits of capacitor actuators
• Pros
• Nearly universal sensing and actuation; no need for special materials.
• Low power. Actuation driven by voltage, not current.
• High speed. Use charging and discharging, therefore realizing full mechanical
response speed
• Cons
• Force and distance inversely scaled - to obtain larger force, the distance must be
small.
• In some applications, vulnerable to particles as the spacing is small - needs
packaging.
• Vulnerable to sticking phenomenon due to molecular forces.
• Occasionally, sacrificial release. Efficient and clean removal of sacrificial materials
• Relatively small actuation range limits applications.
• Need high voltage including electronic complexity.
 Basic Principles
• Capacitive Accelerometer
• Proof mass area 1x0.6 mm2, and 5 mm
thick.
• Net capacitance 150fF
• External IC signal processing circuits

• J.C. Cole, A new sense element technology

for accelerometer subsystems,
Transducers’91, pp. 93-06, 1991 9* 336)

Calculate the C in the inclined surface!

Con…
• Perspective view of lateral comb drive
• Lateral Comb Drive Actuators
• Total capacitance is proportional
to the overlap length and depth
of the fingers, and inversely
proportional to the distance.
• Pros:
• Frequently used in actuators for
its relatively long achievable
driving distance.
• Cons
• force output is a function of
finger thickness. The thicker the
fingers, the large force it will be.
• Relatively large footprint.
Con…
• Transverse Comb Drive Devices
• Direction of finger movement is orthogonal to the direction of fingers.
• Pros: Frequently used for sensing for the sensitivity and ease of fabrication
• Cons: not used as actuator because of the physical limit of distance.
• Sensitivity
• Output change rate with respect to the input
• In the capacitor-related device, the output is capacitance.

• If we want to measure the acceleration, the input will be acceleration.

Con…
• Ex) Sensitivity of accelerometer

• Given: 16 capacitors, two fixed-guided cantilever

• Spring constant of two fixed-guided cantilever
Con…
• The vertical displacement z is a function of the applied acceleration a,

• If you want to increase sensitivity

• high m, L and low E, I
 Analysis of Electrostatic Actuator
• An Equivalent Electromechanical Model

• This diagram depicts a parallel plate capacitor at equilibrium position. The mechanical restoring
spring with spring constant Km (unit: N/m) is associated with the suspension of the top plate.
• According to Hooke’s law, Fmechanical =І Kmx І
• At equilibrium, the two forces, electrical force and mechanical restoring force, must be equal. Less
the plate would move under Newton’s first law
Con…
• Mechanical spring
• Cantilever beams with various boundary conditions
• Torsional bars with various boundary condition
• Electrical and mechanical forces
• Electrical and mechanical forces

• The linear curve represents the

magnitude of mechanical
restoring force as a function of x.

• Each curve in the family

represents magnitude of electric
force as a function of spacing
(x0+x).

• Note that x<0. The origin of x=0

is the dashed line.
 Analysis of electromechanical actuator
• Determining Equilibrium Position Graphically
• At each specific applied voltage, the equilibrium position can be
determined by the intersection of the linear line and the curved line.
• For certain cases, two equilibrium positions are possible. However, as the
plate moves from top to bottom, the first equilibrium position is typically
assumed.
• Note that one curve intersects the linear line only at one point.
• As voltage increases, the curve would have no equilibrium position.
• This transition voltage is called pull-in voltage.
• The fact that at certain voltage, no equilibrium position can be found, is
called pull-in effect.
• Pull-In Effect
• As the voltage bias increases from zero across a pair of parallel plates, the
distance between such plates would decrease until they reach 2/3 of the
original spacing, at which point the two plates would be suddenly snapped
into contact.
• This behaviour is called the pull-in effect or “snap in”.
The magnitude of the electric force and mechanical force as a
function of plate spacing
• Mathematical Determination of Pull-in Voltage
• Defining Electrical Force Constant
• Let’s define the tangent of the electric force term. It is called electrical force constant, ke.

• When voltage is below the pull-in voltage, the magnitude of ke and km are not equal at
equilibrium.

• Review of Equations Related To Parallel Plate

• The electrostatic force is

• The electric force constant is

• Pull-in Condition (1): Force balance
• At the pull-in voltage, there is only one intersection between Fe and Fm curves.

• Force balance yields

Con…

• Pull-in Condition (2): Gradient balance

• At the intersection, the gradient are the same, I.e. the two curves intersect
with same tangent. Ke = km

• Gradient balance yields

• We can get the pull-in location e

Con…
• Pull-in Voltage Calculation
• Plug in the position of pull-in into Eq. * on previous page, we get the voltage
at pull-in as

• At pull in, C=1.5 Co

• Thus,
• Implications of Pull-in Effect
• For electrostatic actuator, it is impossible to control the displacement through the full gap.
Only 1/3 of gap distance can be moved reliably.
• Electrostatic micro mirrors
• reduced range of reliable position tuning
• Electrostatic tunable capacitor
• reduced range of tuning and reduced tuning range
• Tuning distance less than 1/3, tuning capacitance less than 50%
• Types of Electrical-Mechanical Analysis
• Given dimensions and materials of electrostatic structure, find
• force constant of the suspension
• structure displacement prior to pull-in
• value of pull-in voltage
• Given the range of desired applied voltage and the desired displacement, find
• dimensions of a structure
• layout of a structure
• materials of a structure
• Given the desired mechanical parameters including force constants and resonant frequency,
find
• dimensions
• materials
• layout design
• quasistatic displacement
 Examples
• A parallel plate capacitor suspended by two
fixed- fixed cantilever beams, each with length,
width and thickness denoted l, w and t,
respectively. The material is made of polysilicon,
with a Young’s modulus of 120GPa.

• L=400 μm, w=10 μm, and t=1 μm.

• The gap x 0 between two plates is 2 μm.
• The area is 400 μm by 400 μm.
• Calculate the amount of vertical displacement
when a voltage of 0.4 volts is applied.
• Solution
• Find mechanical force constants
• Calculate force constant of one beam first
– use model of left end guided, right end fixed.
– Under force F, the max deflection is
– The force constant is therefor

– This is a relatively “soft” spring.

– Note the spring constant is stiffer than fixed-free beams.
Total force constant encountered by the parallel plate is
Km = 0.0375 N / m
Piezoresistive
• Stress-strain relation
• Physical Causes of Piezoresistivity
• Change of relative dimensions, as the resistance is related to length and cross-
sectional area (local).
• Why Electrical Conductivity Change With Stress/Strain?
• Change of electrical conductivity and resistivity as a result of crystal lattice
deformation.
• Strain causes the shape of energy band curves to change, therefore changing
the effective mass, m*. Therefore electrical conductivity σ changes
• Basic Formula for Describing Piezoresistivity
• G is called Gauge Factor of a piezoresistor. It determines the amplification
factor between strain and resistance change.
• Metal Strain Gauge
• For metals, the resistivity is not changed significantly by the
stress. The gauge factor is believed to be contributed by the
change of dimensions.
• Thin film strain gauges are typically fabricated on top of
flexible plastic substrates and glued to surfaces

• Strain gauge selection and use

• Metal alloys
• Constantan, a Nickel-Cu alloy:
– Of all modern strain gage alloys, constantan is the
oldest, and still the most widely used.
– constantan tends to exhibit a continuous drift at
temperatures above +150 deg F (+65 deg C);
• Nickel-Chrominum alloy
• Two Primary Classes of Piezo-resistor Configuration
s
• Pressure Sensor Based On Polysilicon
• Sensors placed on edges (highest tensile stress) and center (highest
compressive stress)