A MEMS resonant strain sensor operated in air

Author

Wojciechowski, K.E. ; Boser, B.E. ; Pisano, A.P.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electr. Eng., California Univ., Berkeley, CA, USA

fYear

2004

fDate

2004

Firstpage

841

Lastpage

845

Abstract

This paper describes a double-ended tuning fork (DETF) strain sensor that operates in resonance at atmospheric pressure. The sensor was driven with non-integrated, surface mount electronics that successfully mitigates the effects of feed-through capacitance. The MEMS strain sensor achieves a resolution of 0.1 microstrain (με) in a bandwidth of 10 Hz to 20 kHz. The measured phase noise floor at 300 Hz offset from the resonant frequency (217 kHz) is -100 dBc/Hz and the Allan variance for time intervals of 2 seconds is 0.0043 Hz. The measured strain sensitivity is 39 Hz/με. These results are commensurate with current state-of-the-art sensors that are integrated with electronics and packaged in vacuum.

Keywords

capacitance; microsensors; phase noise; resonators; strain sensors; surface mount technology; 0.0043 Hz; 10 to 20 Hz; 2 s; 217 kHz; 300 Hz; Allan variance; MEMS resonant strain sensor; atmospheric pressure; double ended tuning fork; feed-through capacitance; microelectromechanical system; phase noise floor; resonators; strain sensitivity; surface mount electronics; vibrations; Capacitive sensors; Frequency measurement; Micromechanical devices; Noise measurement; Phase measurement; Resonance; Sensor phenomena and characterization; Strain measurement; Time measurement; Vibrations;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Micro Electro Mechanical Systems, 2004. 17th IEEE International Conference on. (MEMS)

Print_ISBN

0-7803-8265-X

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/MEMS.2004.1290718

Filename

1290718