A MEMS sensor for mean shear stress measurements in high-speed turbulent flows with backside interconnects

A floating-element capacitive MEMS shear stress flow sensor was fabricated and shown to successfully measure mean-turbulent skin friction in high-speed compressible duct flow. The sensor was designed for harsh environments (e.g. high-temperature, high-shear stress) with novel through-substrate interconnects for robust packaging and remote circuitry for capacitance measurement. This paper extends our previous work on the MEMS shear stress sensor design and backside interconnect process development to provide complete device fabrication and testing in a high-speed flow.