Scribd
Upload
14 views66 pages

Engineering Aspects of Sensors - Actuators

This document discusses the engineering aspects of capacitive sensors. It provides basic principles on how capacitive sensors work through changes in capacitance between moving and fixed plates as distance or media changes. It describes two major configurations for capacitive sensors - parallel plate capacitors and interdigitated fingers. The document also discusses piezoresistive sensors and how stress and strain can change electrical conductivity and resistivity in materials. Examples of capacitive accelerometers and lateral comb drives are provided. Pull-in effects for electrostatic actuators are analyzed mathematically.

Uploaded by

Shemsudin Ahmedteib
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
14 views66 pages

Engineering Aspects of Sensors - Actuators

This document discusses the engineering aspects of capacitive sensors. It provides basic principles on how capacitive sensors work through changes in capacitance between moving and fixed plates as distance or media changes. It describes two major configurations for capacitive sensors - parallel plate capacitors and interdigitated fingers. The document also discusses piezoresistive sensors and how stress and strain can change electrical conductivity and resistivity in materials. Examples of capacitive accelerometers and lateral comb drives are provided. Pull-in effects for electrostatic actuators are analyzed mathematically.

Uploaded by

Shemsudin Ahmedteib
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 66

Engineering Aspects of sensors

Design concept
Contents
• Capacitive sensors
• Piezo resistive
• Thermal
Basic Principles
• Sensing
• capacitance between moving and fixed plates change as
• distance and position is changed
• media is replaced
• Actuation
• electrostatic force (attraction) between moving and fixed plates as
• a voltage is applied between them
• Two major configurations
• parallel plate capacitor (out of plane)
• interdigitated fingers - IDT (in plane)
Basic Principles

• Parallel Plate Capacitor


• Comb Drive Capacitor
Basic Principles
• Parallel plate capacitor

Fringe electric field (ignored in first order analysis)


𝑄
C=
𝑉
𝑄
𝐸𝑓 =
𝜀𝐴
𝑄 𝜀𝐴 Equations without considering fringe electric field.
C= 𝑄 =
𝑑 𝑑 In FEM analysis, fringe effect can be adapted
𝜀𝐴
Basic Principle
• Forces of capacitor actuators
• Stored energy

• Force is derivative of energy with respect


to pertinent dimensional variable

• Plug in the expression for capacitor

• We arrive at the expression for force


Con…
Relative merits of capacitor actuators
• Pros
• Nearly universal sensing and actuation; no need for special materials.
• Low power. Actuation driven by voltage, not current.
• High speed. Use charging and discharging, therefore realizing full mechanical
response speed
• Cons
• Force and distance inversely scaled - to obtain larger force, the distance must be
small.
• In some applications, vulnerable to particles as the spacing is small - needs
packaging.
• Vulnerable to sticking phenomenon due to molecular forces.
• Occasionally, sacrificial release. Efficient and clean removal of sacrificial materials
• Relatively small actuation range limits applications.
• Need high voltage including electronic complexity.
Basic Principles
• Capacitive Accelerometer
• Proof mass area 1x0.6 mm2, and 5 mm
thick.
• Net capacitance 150fF
• External IC signal processing circuits

• J.C. Cole, A new sense element technology


for accelerometer subsystems,
Transducers’91, pp. 93-06, 1991 9* 336)

Calculate the C in the inclined surface!


Con…
• Perspective view of lateral comb drive
• Lateral Comb Drive Actuators
• Total capacitance is proportional
to the overlap length and depth
of the fingers, and inversely
proportional to the distance.
• Pros:
• Frequently used in actuators for
its relatively long achievable
driving distance.
• Cons
• force output is a function of
finger thickness. The thicker the
fingers, the large force it will be.
• Relatively large footprint.
Con…
• Transverse Comb Drive Devices
• Direction of finger movement is orthogonal to the direction of fingers.
• Pros: Frequently used for sensing for the sensitivity and ease of fabrication
• Cons: not used as actuator because of the physical limit of distance.
• Sensitivity
• Output change rate with respect to the input
• In the capacitor-related device, the output is capacitance.

• If we want to measure the acceleration, the input will be acceleration.


Con…
• Ex) Sensitivity of accelerometer

• Given: 16 capacitors, two fixed-guided cantilever


• Spring constant of two fixed-guided cantilever
Con…
• The vertical displacement z is a function of the applied acceleration a,

• If you want to increase sensitivity


• high m, L and low E, I
Analysis of Electrostatic Actuator
• An Equivalent Electromechanical Model

• This diagram depicts a parallel plate capacitor at equilibrium position. The mechanical restoring
spring with spring constant Km (unit: N/m) is associated with the suspension of the top plate.
• According to Hooke’s law, Fmechanical =І Kmx І
• At equilibrium, the two forces, electrical force and mechanical restoring force, must be equal. Less
the plate would move under Newton’s first law
Con…
• Mechanical spring
• Cantilever beams with various boundary conditions
• Torsional bars with various boundary condition
• Electrical and mechanical forces
• Electrical and mechanical forces

• The linear curve represents the


magnitude of mechanical
restoring force as a function of x.

• Each curve in the family


represents magnitude of electric
force as a function of spacing
(x0+x).

• Note that x<0. The origin of x=0


is the dashed line.
Analysis of electromechanical actuator
• Determining Equilibrium Position Graphically
• At each specific applied voltage, the equilibrium position can be
determined by the intersection of the linear line and the curved line.
• For certain cases, two equilibrium positions are possible. However, as the
plate moves from top to bottom, the first equilibrium position is typically
assumed.
• Note that one curve intersects the linear line only at one point.
• As voltage increases, the curve would have no equilibrium position.
• This transition voltage is called pull-in voltage.
• The fact that at certain voltage, no equilibrium position can be found, is
called pull-in effect.
• Pull-In Effect
• As the voltage bias increases from zero across a pair of parallel plates, the
distance between such plates would decrease until they reach 2/3 of the
original spacing, at which point the two plates would be suddenly snapped
into contact.
• This behaviour is called the pull-in effect or “snap in”.
The magnitude of the electric force and mechanical force as a
function of plate spacing
• Mathematical Determination of Pull-in Voltage
• Defining Electrical Force Constant
• Let’s define the tangent of the electric force term. It is called electrical force constant, ke.

• When voltage is below the pull-in voltage, the magnitude of ke and km are not equal at
equilibrium.

• Review of Equations Related To Parallel Plate

• The electrostatic force is

• The electric force constant is


• Pull-in Condition (1): Force balance
• At the pull-in voltage, there is only one intersection between Fe and Fm curves.

• Force balance yields


Con…

• Pull-in Condition (2): Gradient balance


• At the intersection, the gradient are the same, I.e. the two curves intersect
with same tangent. Ke = km

• Gradient balance yields

• We can get the pull-in location e


Con…
• Pull-in Voltage Calculation
• Plug in the position of pull-in into Eq. * on previous page, we get the voltage
at pull-in as

• At pull in, C=1.5 Co

• Thus,
• Implications of Pull-in Effect
• For electrostatic actuator, it is impossible to control the displacement through the full gap.
Only 1/3 of gap distance can be moved reliably.
• Electrostatic micro mirrors
• reduced range of reliable position tuning
• Electrostatic tunable capacitor
• reduced range of tuning and reduced tuning range
• Tuning distance less than 1/3, tuning capacitance less than 50%
• Types of Electrical-Mechanical Analysis
• Given dimensions and materials of electrostatic structure, find
• force constant of the suspension
• structure displacement prior to pull-in
• value of pull-in voltage
• Given the range of desired applied voltage and the desired displacement, find
• dimensions of a structure
• layout of a structure
• materials of a structure
• Given the desired mechanical parameters including force constants and resonant frequency,
find
• dimensions
• materials
• layout design
• quasistatic displacement
Examples
• A parallel plate capacitor suspended by two
fixed- fixed cantilever beams, each with length,
width and thickness denoted l, w and t,
respectively. The material is made of polysilicon,
with a Young’s modulus of 120GPa.

• L=400 μm, w=10 μm, and t=1 μm.


• The gap x 0 between two plates is 2 μm.
• The area is 400 μm by 400 μm.
• Calculate the amount of vertical displacement
when a voltage of 0.4 volts is applied.
• Solution
• Find mechanical force constants
• Calculate force constant of one beam first
– use model of left end guided, right end fixed.
– Under force F, the max deflection is
– The force constant is therefor

– This is a relatively “soft” spring.


– Note the spring constant is stiffer than fixed-free beams.
Total force constant encountered by the parallel plate is
Km = 0.0375 N / m
Piezoresistive
• Stress-strain relation
• Physical Causes of Piezoresistivity
• Change of relative dimensions, as the resistance is related to length and cross-
sectional area (local).
• Why Electrical Conductivity Change With Stress/Strain?
• Change of electrical conductivity and resistivity as a result of crystal lattice
deformation.
• Strain causes the shape of energy band curves to change, therefore changing
the effective mass, m*. Therefore electrical conductivity σ changes
• Basic Formula for Describing Piezoresistivity
• G is called Gauge Factor of a piezoresistor. It determines the amplification
factor between strain and resistance change.
• Metal Strain Gauge
• For metals, the resistivity is not changed significantly by the
stress. The gauge factor is believed to be contributed by the
change of dimensions.
• Thin film strain gauges are typically fabricated on top of
flexible plastic substrates and glued to surfaces

• Strain gauge selection and use


• Metal alloys
• Constantan, a Nickel-Cu alloy:
– Of all modern strain gage alloys, constantan is the
oldest, and still the most widely used.
– constantan tends to exhibit a continuous drift at
temperatures above +150 deg F (+65 deg C);
• Nickel-Chrominum alloy
• Two Primary Classes of Piezo-resistor Configuration
s
• Pressure Sensor Based On Polysilicon
• Sensors placed on edges (highest tensile stress) and center (highest
compressive stress)

You might also like