A linear-response CMOS-MEMS capacitive tactile sensor

Author

Sun, C.-T. ; Lin, Yu-Chen ; Hsieh, C.-J. ; Liou, J.-C. ; Wang, Liang-Bi ; Tian, W.-C.

Author_Institution

Grad. Inst. of Electron. Eng., Nat. Taiwan Univ., Taipei, Taiwan

fYear

2012

fDate

28-31 Oct. 2012

Firstpage

1

Lastpage

4

Abstract

A linear-response capacitive tactile sensor is presented in this work. The sensor was fabricated by the TSMC 0.35 μ m CMOS process and our self-developed MEMS post-process. The structure of the sensor consisted of one pair of parallel electrodes, with the central part of the membrane electrode hollowed out. A pillar with four beams at each side was set at the center to support the membrane electrode. This structure enhanced the uniformity of the deflection, and thus improved the linearity of the response. The wider dynamic range was also obtained because of the stiffer structure. In addition, the buckling of the membrane was lessened. The performance of this design was compared with the conventional parallel plate one. The measured linearity was 0.9728, and the dynamic range was 400mmHg, with the relieved buckling of 0.22 μm.

Keywords

CMOS integrated circuits; capacitive sensors; microelectrodes; microfabrication; microsensors; tactile sensors; TSMC CMOS process; linear-response CMOS-MEMS capacitive tactile sensor; membrane electrode; parallel electrodes; self-developed MEMS post-process; size 0.35 mum; Capacitance; Dynamic range; Electrodes; Linearity; Metals; Tactile sensors;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Sensors, 2012 IEEE

Conference_Location

Taipei

ISSN

1930-0395

Print_ISBN

978-1-4577-1766-6

Electronic_ISBN

1930-0395

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/ICSENS.2012.6411545

Filename

6411545