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An SOI CMOS-Based Multi-Sensor MEMS Chip for Fluidic Applications.

Published version
Peer-reviewed

Type

Article

Change log

Authors

Mansoor, Mohtashim 
Haneef, Ibraheem 
Akhtar, Suhail 
Rafiq, Muhammad Aftab 

Abstract

An SOI CMOS multi-sensor MEMS chip, which can simultaneously measure temperature, pressure and flow rate, has been reported. The multi-sensor chip has been designed keeping in view the requirements of researchers interested in experimental fluid dynamics. The chip contains ten thermodiodes (temperature sensors), a piezoresistive-type pressure sensor and nine hot film-based flow rate sensors fabricated within the oxide layer of the SOI wafers. The silicon dioxide layers with embedded sensors are relieved from the substrate as membranes with the help of a single DRIE step after chip fabrication from a commercial CMOS foundry. Very dense sensor packing per unit area of the chip has been enabled by using technologies/processes like SOI, CMOS and DRIE. Independent apparatuses were used for the characterization of each sensor. With a drive current of 10 µA-0.1 µA, the thermodiodes exhibited sensitivities of 1.41 mV/°C-1.79 mV/°C in the range 20-300 °C. The sensitivity of the pressure sensor was 0.0686 mV/(Vexcit kPa) with a non-linearity of 0.25% between 0 and 69 kPa above ambient pressure. Packaged in a micro-channel, the flow rate sensor has a linearized sensitivity of 17.3 mV/(L/min)-0.1 in the tested range of 0-4.7 L/min. The multi-sensor chip can be used for simultaneous measurement of fluid pressure, temperature and flow rate in fluidic experiments and aerospace/automotive/biomedical/process industries.

Description

Keywords

CMOS, DRIE, MEMS, SOI, aerospace, dense sensor packing, fluid dynamics, multi-sensor, piezoresistive pressure sensor, sensor system, thermal flow rate sensor, thermodiodes

Journal Title

Sensors (Basel)

Conference Name

Journal ISSN

1424-8220
1424-8220

Volume Title

16

Publisher

MDPI AG
Sponsorship
European Commission (288481)