Half cut stress concentration (HCSC) region design on MEMS piezoresistive cantilever for sensitivity enhancement

This work introduced a half cut stress concentration (HCSC) region on the surface of MEMS piezoresistive cantilever in order to improve the sensitivity of a cantilever sensor based on loading/force effect. From the available information, by increasing the stress occurred on the cantilever surface where piezoresistive region place the sensitivity will increase greatly. The designs were simulated using ANSYS 9.0 in order to study the stress distribution and displacement effect. Results obtain for solid cantilever and designed cantilever have been compared. As expected, stress that occurred was increased and highly concentrated at the HCSC region. The cantilever sensitivity also enhances by 4 times. This design of cantilever can obviously improve the sensitivity of the surface stress cantilever.