Development of Highly Sensitive and Thermostable Microelectromechanical System Pressure Sensor Based on Array-Type...

Area of Science:

• Materials Science
• Electrical Engineering
• Mechanical Engineering

Background:

• Advanced pressure sensing requires high sensitivity and minimal temperature drift.
• Microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) offer miniaturization and integration advantages for sensor design.

Purpose of the Study:

• To design, fabricate, and characterize a MEMS piezoresistive pressure sensor with an array-type aluminum-silicon hybrid structure.
• To achieve high sensitivity and low temperature drift for enhanced pressure detection performance.
• To develop a thermodynamic control system for active temperature compensation.

Main Methods:

• Utilizing an array-type aluminum-silicon hybrid structure for both pressure and temperature sensing.
• Employing finite-element numerical simulation to verify enhanced piezoresistive effects and sensitivity.
• Fabricating the sensor using a standard MEMS process.
• Implementing a proportional-integral-derivative (PID) algorithm within a thermodynamic control system for constant working temperature.

Main Results:

• The designed sensor exhibits an average sensitivity of 0.25 mV/(V kPa) within the 0-370 kPa range.
• Average nonlinear error was measured to be approximately 1.7%.
• Thermal sensitivity drift coefficient (TCS) was reduced to 0.0152%FS/°C across a -20 °C to 50 °C ambient temperature range.

Conclusions:

• The developed MEMS array-type pressure sensor demonstrates high performance with excellent sensitivity and low temperature drift.
• The integrated temperature compensation system effectively minimizes thermal effects on pressure measurements.
• This research provides a valuable reference for developing next-generation high-performance MEMS pressure sensors.