Design of a high sensitivity MEMS piezoresistive

intracranial pressure sensor using three turns meander

shaped piezoresistors
Mazita Mohamada,d, Norhayati Soina,c,l, and Fatimah Ibrahimb,c
aOepartment of Electrical Engineering, bOepartment of Biomedical Enginering,
Faculty of Engineering, University of Malaya,
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Inorhayatisoin@um.edu.my

CCenter for Innovation in Medical Engineering (CIME), University of Malaya,

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
dOepartment of Electronic Engineering,
Faculty of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia (UTHM),
Batu Pahat, Johor, Malaysia

Abstract--- The advancement in MEMS technology has
triggered the development of small sensing devices such as
intracranial pressure sensor. As the intracranial signal is a
pulsating type, the sensor must be sensitive enough to detect these
changes. Hence, the important parameters of intracranial
pressure sensor are the sensitivity and linearity. At present, the
sensitivities were within the range of 2 I1V/v/mmHg to 0.17
mV/v/mmHg with the smallest sensor size of 500 11m x 500 11m
(for adult). This paper presents the improved design of MEMS
piezoresistive pressure which aims at achieving higher sensitivity
for subarachnoid space microsensor by using the three turns
meander shaped piezoresistors. A square diaphragm of200 11m x
200 11m x 2 11m is set for the sensor. Different piezoresistors
configurations were simulated using COMSOL Multiphysics to
determine the better sensing outputs. The position of each
piezoresistor was based on von Mises stress. By choosing the
shape of piezoresistor that occupies most of the high stress
region, the change in resistance per pressure will be higher. The
design which consolidates the three turns and zero turn meander
shaped piezoresistors was found to be the best with the sensitivity
of 0.125 mV/v/mmHg and linearity of 99%. This design has
fulfilled the specification ofthe intracranial pressure sensor.
Keywords- intracranial pressure sensor; MEMS; piezoresistive
I. INTRODUCTION
The sensors developed using the MEMS technology have
tremendously shrunk in size make them ideal for biomedical
application like intracranial monitoring devices. Using a small
pressure sensor requires a small intubation, makes the healing
time shorter and minimizes the risk of infection. Based on [1],
the most common location for intracranial pressure (lCP)
monitoring is cerebral parenchymal and contemporary
intracranial pressure sensor of that location is a piezoresistive
pressure sensor. Although the piezoresistive output is
sensitive to temperature changes, it could be corrected easily
by using a simple compensation circuit, namely Wheatstone
bridge [2].
Ideally, the ICP pressure sensor should be durable, bio-
compatible and inexpensive. As ICP monitoring deals with
the well-being, therefore accuracy and sensitivity of the ICP
pressure sensors are very crucial. The sensitivity of the
commercially available ICP microtransducer is 5 fl VN ImmHg
(Gaeltec & Raumedic). Based on the academic researches, the
sensitivities of the piezoresistive sensors were within the range
of 2 fl VN ImmHg to 0.17 mVN ImmHg [3-10]. To obtain the
accurate readings, several factors need to be considered such
as the shapes of piezoresistors and the dimensions of the
diaphragm. For the ICP application, its critical point is the
size of the sensor itself. It needs to be small enough to fit into
the probe. The smallest size of ICP pressure sensor for the
adult is 500 flm x 500 flm with the sensitivity of 2
fl VN ImmHg, but it is for the lumbar area [10].
This paper presents the design of an ICP piezoresistive
pressure sensor using three turns meander shaped
piezoresistors. Thus far, only the one turn meander shaped
piezoresistors have been applied in the designs ofICP pressure
sensor [5, 7, 9, 10] while [3] have used the three turns
meander shaped piezoresistors on the cantilever, not on the
diaphragm like this work. The size of diaphragm used is 200
flm x 200 flm x 2 flm using n-type silicon. The targeted
location of ICP pressure sensor is the subarachnoid space with
the measurable pressure within the range of 0 - 100 mmHg.
II. PIEZORESISTIVE PRESSURE SENSOR
A piezoresistive pressure sensor is normally consists of 4
piezoresistors arranged in Wheatstone bridge configuration as
illustrated in Fig. I. When no pressure is applied, the output
voltage, Vaut is zero as all the piezoresistors are equal,
therefore the bridge is in a balanced state. When the
diaphragm deflects due to the applied pressure, these
piezoresistors' values change accordingly. For the p-type
piezoresistors oriented at <110> on an-type (100) silicon
substrate, change in resistance value is expressed in (I) [2].

978-1-5090-4568-6/16/$31.00 ©2016 IEEE

 Rj diaphragm
r - - - -0 - -'~-J""-l--------
: --I
I R2 R31

b d
[J \J
I 1
1 R,
1
~ ___ CJ ____ ~

(a) (b) (c)

Fig. l. (a) Schematic ofpiezoresistive pressure sensor (top view). (b) Pressure sensor (side view). (c) The equivalent Wheatstone configuration.[ll]

TABLE I. DESIGN SPECIFIC AnONS OF ICP PRESSURE SENSOR

(1)
Parameter Value
lr, and lrt are piezoresistive coefficients of the material Pressure range [13] 0-100 mmHg
along longitudinal and transverse directions and their Size dimension [10]:
expressions are indicated in (2) and (3). 0', and O't are the Sensor 500 11m x 500 11m
stresses along longitudinal and transverse directions [2]. Diaphragm 200 11m x 200 11m
Sensitivity [10] >0.01 mV/v/mmHg
(2) Linearity [3-10] >90%
Input voltage, Vin [13] IV
(3)
tebal(4) =2e-6 Suriace: von Mises stress (MPa) Slice: x-coordinate (11m)
Slice: y-coordinate (I-Im)
Parallel piezoresistors will decrease and the perpendicular y
~ 35.2

ones will increase [II]. Due to the symmetrical designs of 35

these piezoresistors, the changes in resistances are equal
30
depending on the arrangement, i.e. I1R, = I1Rt and I1R2 = I1RJ .
Thus, the output voltage will also change as expressed in (4) 25

where R is the value of resistance when no pressure is applied. 20

(I1RI +I1R 2 )
V =
Ollt 2R+I1R2 -I1RI
·v
111
~)
15

10

III. DESIGN METHODOLOGY

The sensors were designed based on the specifications y
summarized in Table I. The size of the sensor was set in Lx
order to fit into 4FR probe. The sensitivity of greater than
0.01 mV/V/mmHg was set as the previous research for the
same sensor size is 2 f..lV/V/mmHg [10]. The design stage was
segregated into two, i.e. determine (a) the location for the
piezoresistors on the diaphragm size of 200 f..lm x 200 f..lm x 2
/lm and (b) the best piezoresistors configuration. A square
diaphragm is selected because it has 60 % higher mechanical
stress instead of circular one for the same thickness [7].
A. Selection ofPiezoresistors Placement, Size and Shape
P-type piezoresistors (with doping concentration of 10 15
atomlcm3 ) oriented at <110> on an-type (100) silicon
substrate were chosen in the designs. These piezoresistors Fig. 2. Surface von-Mises stress of the diaphragm at pressure of 100 mmHg.
need to be placed in the high stress region [2, 11, 12]. Hence,
the von Mises stress result from the COMSOL Multiphysics more mechanical stress than the central point [2]. As the 2 /lm
simulation was used as illustrated in Fig. 2. The high stress thickness is considered a thin diaphragm, the high stress
region was found within the diaphragm and near the center of region is not extended into the bulk silicon area as mentioned
the edges, i.e. the red region. This is in agreement with the in [II, 12]. Therefore, the four piezoresistors were positioned
theory which states that the center of edges are experiencing at the center of the diaphragm's edges.
 Three types of piezoresistors were used in the design as
depicted in Fig. 3. The piezoresistors were comprised of
piezoresistive bars (p-type) and connecting bars (metal). The
connecting bars will not contribute to the piezoresistive effect
[12]. The piezoresistors sizes were designed to fit into the
high stress regions [II]. Hence, the dimension of O-turn
meander shaped piezoresistor was set to 80 /lm x 5 /lm. To
ensure the equal resistances at the no load condition, the total
length of the piezoresistive bar must be equal [11]. Therefore,
the piezoresistive bars of I-turn and 3-turns meander shaped
piezoresistors were set to be fractions of 80 /lm as shown in
Table 2.
B. Selection ofDifierent Piezoresistors Configurations
Four models of different piezoresistors sensors were
selected as shown in Fig. 4 in accomplishing the high
sensitivity sensor. The models were selected based on the
in resistance values while the perpendicular piezoresistors (R2
and R3 ) increase in resistance values as the pressure increases.
The 3-turns meander shaped piezoresistor located
perpendicular to the diaphragm experiences the most change,
+/l..R/R = 1.6E-3 per 10 mmHg. [t is followed by the I-turn
piezoresistor placed perpendicular to the diaphragm in which
the change in resistance, +/l..R/R = 1.1 E-3 per 10 mmHg. The
results concur with [II, 12] that the sensitivity will be
improved as the number of vertical bar increases. It is due to
the maximum distribution area of the piezoresistor on the
high-stress region in comparison to the other types of
piezoresistors [II].
However, the placement of piezoresistor also plays an
important factor [2, 14] as illustrated in Fig. 6. The 3-turns
r--=---, r - - c::==::::J'. - -,

researches by [11, 12]. In order to test their performances, the ,

I

simulations were done by using COM SOL Multiphysics

through Structural Mechanics Module - Piezoresistivity,
Boundary Currents. Combinations of tetrahedral mesh (for
,,
I

.c::==::::J
,
__ J
~
: I
W ~
, R,
L-. _ ..... _ ,.C::==::::J. _ _ J ~---l:J---i
diaphragm and substrate) and quadrilateral mesh (for circuit
elements) were used in this project. Modell Model 2
:R2 ~;
D
,
D I

IV. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS : ___ D~ ____ :

~ ~
~--~---i
To ensure the linearity and sensitivity performance of the , ,
pressure sensor, several parameters need to be considered.
These critical key factors include the shape and location of
piezoresistors.
i ,

~ __-.aJ___ ~
I I

A. Analysis ofSensitivity PerfOrmance ofthe Sensors

Model 3 Model 4
Fig. 5 shows the output voltage of each model. All the Fig. 4. Four models of different piezoresistors configurations.
models achieve the targeted specification for sensitivity, i.e.
above 0.01 mVIV/mmHg. Model 2, which comprised of 0- 12
turn and 3-turns piezoresistors gives the highest sensitivity of
0.125 mVIV /mmHg, followed closely by Model 3 which is 10

composed of I-turn and 3-turns meander shaped piezoresistors .....

with the sensitivity of 0.122 mVIV/mmHg. Meanwhile, :;
Modell gives the lowest sensitivity of 0.101 mVIV/mmHg. oS 6
"5
g 4
The results are supported with the graph of change in
resistance of different piezoresistor shapes, illustrated in Fig.
6. Parallel piezoresistors (R 1 and R4 of each model) decrease

20 40 60 80 100
connecting bar piezoresistive b a w
~(==l~Pb~:j~~i~
Iii Wpb~rl 5 ~
Applied pressure (mmHg)

I:
./ gap Fig. 5. Output voltage of each model at different pressure settings.
~
Web
(a) (b) (c)
Fig. 3. Meander shaped piezoresistors (a) zero turn (O-turn) (b) one turn
(l-turn) (c) three turns (3-turns).

TABLE II. GEOMETRIC PARAMETERS OF P1EZORES1STORS

Geometric Parameter Zero turn One turn Three turns

lpb 80 40 20
Wpb 5 5 5
Web - 10 10
g,p - 5 5 Applied pressure (mmHg)

(All values are III J.lm) Fig. 6. Change in resistance for diflerent shape ofpiezoresistors.
piezoresistor placed in parallel experiences the least change in
resistance, -I'!.RlR = 0.70E-3 per 10 mmHg. This is why
Model 4 does not give the highest sensitivity. For
piezoresistor placed in parallel, the most change happen in the
O-turn piezoresistor, i.e. -I'!.RlR = 0.92E-3 per 10 mmHg.
Hence, Model 2 which composed of O-turn piezoresistors
(placed in parallel) and 3-turns piezoresistors (placed in
perpendicular) gives the best sensitivity of all.
B. Analysis ofLinearity PerfOrmance ofthe Sensors
from 0 to 100 mmHg. However, the best linearity
performance is by Modell which composed of the O-turn and
2-turns meander shaped piezoresistors. This shows that the
sensitivity and linearity ofthe sensor are very much influenced
by the shapes of piezoresistors and their placements on the
diaphragm. The 3-turns meander shaped piezoresistor
positioned perpendicular to the diaphragm gives the highest
change in resistance which results in the highest sensitivity.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

The non-linearity of the sensors is calculated using
expression (5) [12] where A and Pmax are the calibrated and
maximum pressure respectively while VoutCA) and VoutCAnax)
refer to the output voltage at these pressures. Table 3 shows
the non-linearity and sensitivity of each model.
v:out (p.) v,;,APmaJ p
1 1
The work is supported by the University Malaya Research
Grant UMRG-AET (Grant Number RPOI4B-13AET). The
authors would also like to express their gratitude to the Micro
Electronic Laboratory, Faculty of Engineering for facilitating
the research work.
REFERENCES

NL,= Pm" .100%
~lf{(Pmax)
Overall, the linearity performances of the sensors fulfill the
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worst linearity performance (in which the non-linearity of
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piezoresistors only. This is in trend with the results obtained
by [11, 12]. The more number of turns ofpiezoresistor causes
the distinct variation of resistance between the perpendicular
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