MEMS Force Sensor in a Flexible Substrate Using Nichrome Piezoresistors

Author

Ahmed, Mariwan ; Chitteboyina, Murali M. ; Butler, Donald P. ; Celik-Butler, Zeynep

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electr. Eng., Univ. of Texas at Arlington, Arlington, TX, USA

Volume

13

Issue

10

fYear

2013

fDate

Oct. 2013

Firstpage

4081

Lastpage

4089

Abstract

MEMS force sensors embedded in flexible polyimide substrates are reported, motivated by the need to monitor force and pressure on nonplanar surfaces for structural health monitoring. Details of the fabrication, measured preliminary results, and figures of merit are described. The sensors showed an average piezoresistive gauge factor of 1.75. The average value of normalized Hooge noise coefficient K_1/f was found to be 1.89×10^-10. The sensitivity was measured to the range from 0.266 to 2.248 V/N with an average sensitivity of 1.25 V/N. The noise equivalent force was calculated to the range from 8.83 to 46.56 μN with an average value of 20.47 μN for the force sensors in a noise frequency bandwidth from 1 to 8 Hz.

Keywords

condition monitoring; force sensors; microsensors; piezoresistive devices; resistors; sensitivity; MEMS force sensor; bandwidth 1 Hz to 8 Hz; figure-of-merit; flexible polyimide substrates; nichrome piezoresistors; noise equivalent force; nonplanar surfaces; normalized Hooge noise coefficient; piezoresistive gauge factor; sensitivity; structural health monitoring; Force; Force sensors; Noise; Piezoresistive devices; Substrates; Voltage measurement; Flexible substrate; force sensor; gauge factor; nichrome piezoresistor;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Sensors Journal, IEEE

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

1530-437X

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/JSEN.2013.2272881

Filename

6558787