• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.101-109
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• 2004

This paper presents a novel z-axis accelerometer with perfectly aligned vertical combs fabricated using the extended sacrificial bulk micromachining (extended SBM) process. The z-axis accelerometer is fabricated using only one (111) SOI wafer and two photo masks without wafer bonding or CMP processes as used by other research efforts that involve vertical combs. In our process, there is no misalignment in lateral gap between the upper and lower comb electrodes, because all critical dimensions including lateral gaps are defined using only one mask. The fabricated accelerometer has the structure thickness of $30{\mu}m$, the vertical offset of $12{\mu}m$, and lateral gap between electrodes of $4{\mu}m$. Torsional springs and asymmetric proof mass produce a vertical displacement when an external z-axis acceleration is applied, and capacitance change due to the vertical displacement of the comb is detected by charge-to-voltage converter. The signal-to-noise ratio of the modulated and demodulated output signal is 80 dB and 76.5 dB, respectively. The noise equivalent input acceleration resolution of the modulated and demodulated output signal is calculated to be $500{\mu}g$ and $748{\mu}g$. The scale factor and linearity of the accelerometer are measured to be 1.1 mV/g and 1.18% FSO, respectively.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.3 no.3
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• pp.16-21
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• 1994

A 3-terminal pin-type photosensor with gate contrail is fabricated using standard silicon CMOS IC process. The photosensor of a $100{\mu}m{\times}120{\mu}m$ size has dark current less than 1nA and its breakdown voltage is -14V with a depletion capacitance 0.75 pF at -5V reverse bias. Responsivity at 0V gate voltage is 0.25A/W at $0.633{\mu}m$ wavelength, 0.19A/W at $0.805{\mu}m$. Responsivity increases with increasing gate voltage. The integrated circuit of photosensor and CMOS inverter shows $22K{\Omega}$ transimpedance and photocurrent of $90{\mu}A$ switchs the output state of digital inverter without additional amplifier.

• Transactions on Electrical and Electronic Materials
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• v.12 no.6
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• pp.262-266
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• 2011

A simulation study of a current-mode direct current (DC)-DC boost converter is presented in this paper. This converter, with a fully-integrated power module, is implemented by using bipolar complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (BiCMOS) technology. The current-sensing circuit has an op-amp to achieve high accuracy. With the sense metal-oxide semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET) in the current sensor, the sensed inductor current with the internal ramp signal can be used for feedback control. In addition, BiCMOS technology is applied to the converter, for accurate current sensing and low power consumption. The DC-DC converter is designed with a standard 0.35 ${\mu}m$ BiCMOS process. The off-chip inductor-capacitor (LC) filter is operated with an inductance of 1 mH and a capacitance of 12.5 nF. Simulation results show the high performance of the current-sensing circuit and the validity of the BiCMOS converter. The output voltage is found to be 4.1 V with a ripple ratio of 1.5% at the duty ratio of 0.3. The sensing current is measured to be within 1 mA and follows to fit the order of the aspect ratio, between sensing and power FET.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering Conference
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• 2013.10a
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• pp.763-764
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• 2013

A three-dimensional image capturing device and its signal processing algorithm and apparatus are presented. Three dimensional information is one of emerging differentiators that provides consumers with more realistic and immersive experiences in user interface, game, 3D-virtual reality, and 3D display. It has the depth information of a scene together with conventional color image so that full-information of real life that human eyes experience can be captured, recorded and reproduced. 20 Mega-Hertz-switching high speed image shutter device for 3D image capturing and its application to system prototype are presented[1,2]. For 3D image capturing, the system utilizes Time-of-Flight (TOF) principle by means of 20MHz high-speed micro-optical image modulator, so called 'optical resonator'. The high speed image modulation is obtained using the electro-optic operation of the multi-layer stacked structure having diffractive mirrors and optical resonance cavity which maximizes the magnitude of optical modulation[3,4]. The optical resonator is specially designed and fabricated realizing low resistance-capacitance cell structures having small RC-time constant. The optical shutter is positioned in front of a standard high resolution CMOS image sensor and modulates the IR image reflected from the object to capture a depth image (Figure 1). Suggested novel optical resonator enables capturing of a full HD depth image with depth accuracy of mm-scale, which is the largest depth image resolution among the-state-of-the-arts, which have been limited up to VGA. The 3D camera prototype realizes color/depth concurrent sensing optical architecture to capture 14Mp color and full HD depth images, simultaneously (Figure 2,3). The resulting high definition color/depth image and its capturing device have crucial impact on 3D business eco-system in IT industry especially as 3D image sensing means in the fields of 3D camera, gesture recognition, user interface, and 3D display. This paper presents MEMS-based optical resonator design, fabrication, 3D camera system prototype and signal processing algorithms.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.34 no.5
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• pp.314-320
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• 2021

Controlling ambient humid condition through high performance humidity sensors has become important for various fields, including industrial process, food storage, and the preservation of historic remains. Although aerosol deposited humidity sensors using ceramic BaTiO₃ (BT) material have been widely studied because of their longtime stability, there remain critical disadvantages, such as low sensitivity, low linearity, and slow response/recovery time in case of the sensors fabricated at room temperature. To achieve superior humidity sensing properties even at room temperature condition, BT-Cu composite films utilizing aerosol deposition (AD) process have been proposed based on the percolation theory. The BT-Cu composite films showed gradually improved sensing properties until the Cu concentration reached 15 wt% in the composite film. However, the excessive Cu (above 30 wt%) containing BT-Cu composite films showed a rapid decrease of the sensing properties. The results of observed surface morphology of the AD fabricated composite films, to figure out the metal filler effect, showed correlation between surface topography as well as size and the amount of open pores according to the metal filler content. Overall, it is very important not only dielectric constant of the humidity sensing films but also microstructures, because they affect either the variation range of capacitance by ambient humidity or adsorption/desorption of ambient humidity onto/from the humidity sensing films.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.36 no.5
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• pp.423-432
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• 2023

With the increasing demand for mobile devices featuring multi-touch operation, extensive research is being conducted on touch screen panel (TSP) Readout ICs (ROICs) that should possess low power consumption, compact chip size, and immunity to external noise. Therefore, this paper discusses capacitive touch sensors and their readout circuits, and it introduces research trends in various circuit designs that are robust against external noise sources. The recent state-of-the-art TSP ROICs have primarily focused on minimizing the impact of parasitic capacitance (Cp) caused by thin panel thickness. The large Cp can be effectively compensated using an area-efficient current compensator and Current Conveyor (CC), while a display noise reduction scheme utilizing a noise-antenna (NA) electrode significantly improves the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). Based on these achievements, it is expected that future TSP ROICs will be capable of stable operation with thinner and flexible Touch Screen Panels (TSPs).

• Journal of Bio-Environment Control
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.309-315
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• 2009

Maintenance of adequate soil water content during the period of crop growth is necessary to support optimum plant growth and yields. A better understanding of soil water movement for precision irrigation would allow efficient supply of water to crops, thereby resulting in minimization of water drainage and contamination of ground water. This research reports on the characterization of spatial and temporal variations in water contents through three different textured soils, such as loam, sandy loam, and loamy sand, when water is applied on the soil surface using an one-line drip irrigation system and the soils are dried after the irrigation stops, respectively. Water contents through each soil profile were continuously monitored using three Sentek probes, each consisting of three capacitance sensors at 10, 20, and 30cm depths. Spatial variability in water content for each soil type was strongly influenced by soil textural class. There were big differences in wetting pattern and the rate of downward movement between loam and sandy loam soils, showing that the loam soil had a wider wetting pattern and a slower rate of downward movement than did the sandy loam soil. The wetting pattern in loamy sand soil was not apparent due to a low variability in water content (< 10%) by a lower-water holding capacity as compared to those measured in the loam and sandy loam soils, implying that the rate of water drainage below a depth of 30cm was high. When soils were dried, there were highly exponential relationships between water content and time elapsed after irrigation stops ($r^2$${\geq}$0.98). It was estimated that equilibrium moisture contents for loam, sandy loam, and loamy sand soils would be 17.6%, 6.2%, and 4.2%, respectively.

• Journal of Korean Society of Transportation
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• v.23 no.5 s.83
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• pp.123-134
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• 2005

This research aims at developing a new method which can replace the existing method. known as the quality factor(Q factor) method by an L-R-C test for use in the performance test of inductive loop detectors(ILD) being installed and maintained. In this study, a sensor to detect a magnetic field in terms of frequency and intensity, a method to collect field data, the method of analysis, and the method of diagnosis were developed. An automatic diagnosis system which was developed to overcome those drawbacks has the following features : First, field data is collected automatically by a test vehicle equipped with magnetic field sensors that is running can be said to along the roadway and. thus, the new system completely overcome the roadway and, thus, the new system can be said to completely overcome the inefficiency of the existing method second, since the magnetic fold generated from the ILD is the final output of the whole system of ILD, the existing problem has been solved. third. since each of the detection area by height is collected by the magnetic sensors installed by height. a basic for the identification of the vehicle types to be detectable and the setting of adjustment factors has been made. For the automatic diagnosis system developed during in this study, a reliability test was carried out by comparing vehicle times of ILD installed ideally.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.67-75
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• 1992

PTC thermistor has been fabricated with as-received $BaTiO_{3}$ powder and its electrical properties were investigated. The resistivity of the PTC thermistor was measured at $20^{\circ}C$ intervals from $20^{\circ}C$ to $200^{\circ}C$. The electrical characteristics of the PTC thermistor are determined by the ac complex impedance analysis. The average grain size measured with a scanning electron microscope increased from $3.8{\mu}m$ to $8.8{\mu}m$ with increasing sintering temperature between $1280^{\circ}C$ and $1400^{\circ}C$. The maximum resistivity jump was $4{\times}10^{5}$. The bulk resistivity of the thermistor sintered above $1340^{\circ}C$ decreased with increasing temperature of the measurement. The grain boundary resistance increased exponentially, the grain boundary capacitance decreased, and the built-in potential at the grain boundary increased with increasing temperature of the measurement. The charge densiy at the grain boundary increased with increasing temperature up to $110^{\circ}C$, which leveled off with further increase in measuring temperature.

• Journal of the Korean Electrochemical Society
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.17-22
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• 1999

Since the use of porous silicon for microsensors and microactuators is in the euly stage of study, only several application devices, such as light-emitting diodes and chemical sensors have so far been demonstrated. In this paper we present an overview of the present status of porous silicon sensors and actuators research with special emphasis on the applications of chemical sensors and optical devices. The capacitive type porous silicon humidity sensors had a nonlinear capacitance-humidity characteristic and a good sensitivity at higher humidity above $40\%RH$. The porous silicon $n^+-p-n^+$ device showed a sharp increase in current when exposed to an ethanol vapor. The $p^+-PSi-n^+$ diode fabricated on porous silicon diaphragm exhibited an optical switching characteristic, opening up its utility as an optical sensor or switch. The photoluminescence (PL) spectrum, taken from porous silicon under 365 nm excitation, had a broad emission, peaked at -610 nm. The electroluminescence(EL) from ITO/PSi/In LED had a broader spectrum with a blue shifted peak at around 535nm than that of the PL.