A novel MEMS chip-based atmospheric electric field sensor for lightning hazard warning applications

This paper presents a novel atmospheric electric field sensor based on high sensitivity resonant MEMS (microelectromechanical systems) electric field sense chips, which resolves the problems of motor wear, high power consumption and failure rate of the conventional electric field mill. The chip was fabricated in a commercial SOIMUMPS process. The sensor overall structure scheme was proposed and the phase-sensitive detection method was used for extract the chip output signal. A special protective structure was designed for protecting the sensor against the influences of the external environment. The minimum detectable electric field of the sensor is 10V/m with an uncertainty of 0.67% in the range of 0~50kV/m, and its power consumption is only 0.62w. The outdoor test showed that the plotted data of the sensor agreed well with those of the conventional electric field mill on both sunny day and thunderstorm day, which indicates that the developed sensor can meet the applications of lighting hazard warning.