A low-voltage force-balanced pressure sensor with hermetically sealed servomechanism

Author

Gogoi, B.P. ; Mastrangelo, C.H.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electr. Eng. & Comput. Sci., Michigan Univ., Ann Arbor, MI, USA

fYear

1999

fDate

21-21 Jan. 1999

Firstpage

493

Lastpage

498

Abstract

In this paper we report the fabrication and testing of a low voltage force-balanced surface micromachined pressure sensor with a hermetically sealed servomechanism. In this device, the force and deformation of a diaphragm induced by an external pressure is balanced using electrostatic forces. The design described here has a full scale pressure range of 1 atmosphere, a nominal capacitance of 2.12 pF and a full scale range of 100 fF. The pressure is balanced by voltages in the range of about 12 volts, which proves the feasibility of developing a closed-loop pressure sensor using low-voltage electronics.

Keywords

capacitive sensors; closed loop systems; diaphragms; electrostatic actuators; micromachining; microsensors; pressure sensors; servomechanisms; 12 V; LV force-balanced pressure sensor; closed loop sensor; closed-loop pressure sensor; diaphragm; electrostatic forces; fabrication; full scale capacitance range; full scale pressure range; hermetically sealed servomechanism; low-voltage electronics; nominal capacitance; sensor design; surface micromachined pressure sensor; testing; Actuators; Circuit testing; Electrostatics; Fabrication; Force sensors; Hermetic seals; Material properties; Sensor phenomena and characterization; Servomechanisms; Voltage;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Micro Electro Mechanical Systems, 1999. MEMS '99. Twelfth IEEE International Conference on

Conference_Location

Orlando, FL, USA

ISSN

1084-6999

Print_ISBN

0-7803-5194-0

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/MEMSYS.1999.746878

Filename

746878