Annularly Grooved Diaphragm Pressure Sensor With Embedded Silicon Nanowires for Low Pressure Application

Author

Songsong Zhang ; Tao Wang ; Liang Lou ; Wei Mong Tsang ; Sawada, Renshi ; Dim-Lee Kwong ; Chengkuo Lee

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electr. & Comput. Eng., Nat. Univ. of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore

Volume

23

Issue

6

fYear

2014

fDate

Dec. 2014

Firstpage

1396

Lastpage

1407

Abstract

We present a nanoelectromechanical system piezoresistive pressure sensor with annular grooves on the circular diaphragm where silicon nanowires (SiNWs) are embedded as sensing elements around the edge. In comparison with our previous flat diaphragm pressure sensor, this new diaphragm structure enhances the device sensitivity by 2.5 times under pressure range of 0-120 mmHg. By leveraging SiNWs as piezoresistors, this improvement is even remarkable in contrast to other recently reported piezoresistive pressure sensing devices. In addition, with the miniaturized sensing diaphragm (radius of 100 μm) the sensor can be potentially used as implantable device for low-pressure sensing applications.

Keywords

elemental semiconductors; intelligent sensors; nanofabrication; nanosensors; nanowires; piezoresistive devices; pressure sensors; silicon; Si; annularly grooved circular flat diaphragm pressure sensor; circular diaphragm; distance 100 mum; embedded silicon nanowire; low-pressure sensing application; nanoelectromechanical system; piezoresistive pressure sensor; piezoresistor; pressure 0 mm Hg to 120 mm Hg; Etching; Nanowires; Piezoresistance; Sensitivity; Sensors; Silicon; Stress; Piezoresistance; annular groove; biomedical; biomedical.; low pressure; pressure sensor; silicon nanowires (SiNWs);

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Microelectromechanical Systems, Journal of

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

1057-7157

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/JMEMS.2014.2313635

Filename

6786986