A novel 3-D tube-shaped buried poly-Si Pirani gauge for extended dynamic range with small footprint

Author

Santagata, F. ; Iervolino, E. ; Laros, J.M.W. ; Groeneweg, J. ; Creemer, J.F. ; van Herwaarden, A.W. ; Sarro, P.M.

Author_Institution

Delft Univ. of Technol., Delft, Netherlands

fYear

2010

fDate

24-28 Jan. 2010

Firstpage

643

Lastpage

646

Abstract

We have developed a novel micromachined Pirani vacuum gauge employing a tube-shaped 3-D structure with enhanced rigidity and very low footprint because it is completely buried inside the silicon substrate. A CMOS-compatible three masks process was used to realize this new design, which allowed the fabrication, without stiction problems of a 3.2 mm long Pirani poly-Si tube with a 1.5 Â¿m gap. Compared to previous gauges, the dynamic range is 100 times larger, ranging from 20 mPa to 10 kPa with a maximum sensitivity of 17.5 mV/decade.

Keywords

CMOS integrated circuits; masks; micromechanical devices; pressure gauges; 3-D tube-shaped buried poly-Si Pirani gauge; CMOS-compatible three masks process; Pirani poly-Si tube; extended dynamic range; footprint; micromachined Pirani vacuum gauge; pressure 20 mPa to 100 kPa; rigidity; sensitivity; silicon substrate; size 1.5 mum; size 3.2 mm; stiction problems; Biomembranes; Dielectric substrates; Dielectric thin films; Dynamic range; Fabrication; Geometry; Micromechanical devices; Pressure measurement; Resistors; Silicon;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Micro Electro Mechanical Systems (MEMS), 2010 IEEE 23rd International Conference on

Conference_Location

Wanchai, Hong Kong

ISSN

1084-6999

Print_ISBN

978-1-4244-5761-8

Electronic_ISBN

1084-6999

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/MEMSYS.2010.5442326

Filename

5442326