• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Marine Engineers Conference
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• 2005.06a
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• pp.1016-1021
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• 2005

A piezoresistive pressure sensor using a silicone rubber membrane has been fabricated on the selectively diffused (100)-oriented n/n+/n silicon substrates by a unique silicon micromachining technique using porous silicon ething. The width, length and thickness of the beam were 120${\mu}m$, 600${\mu}m$ and 7${\mu}m$, respectively and the thickness of the silicone rubber membrane was 40${\mu}m$. By the fusion of silicon beam and silicone rubber membrane, the mechanical strength of the pressure sensor could be highly improved due to smaller shear stress. The effectiveness of the sensor was confirmed through an experiment and FEM simulation in which the pressure sensor was characterized.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.20 no.6
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• pp.393-399
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• 2011

In this paper, we designed and fabricated the novel air flow sensor using air drag force, which can be applied to the low air flow detection. To measure the low air flow, we should enlarge the air drag force and the output signal at the given air flow. The paddle structure is applied to the device, and the device is vertically located against the air flow to magnify the air drag force. We also adapt the corrugation structure to improve the output signals on the given air velocity. The device structure is made up of the silicon nitride layer and the output signal is measured with the piezoresistive layer. The output signals from the corrugated device show the better measurement sensitivity and the response time than that of flat one. The repeated measurement also shows the stabilized signals.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 2015.07a
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• pp.1229-1230
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• 2015

Monitoring of mechanical properties of tissues as well as direction/quantities of forces is considered as an essential way for disease diagnosis and haptic feedback systems. There are extensively increasing interests for measuring normal/shear force and touch feelings, especially for surgery systems. Highly sensitive and flexible tactile sensor is needed in palpation for detecting cancer cyst as well as real time pressure monitoring in minimally invasive surgery (MIS). Importantly, MEMS technique with miniaturized fabrication technique is essential for the on-chip integration with biopsy and biomedical grasper. Here, we propose the flexible tactile sensor with high sensitivity based on piezoresistive effect. We analyzed the sensitivity according to the pressure and directions and showed the ability of discrimination of the different materials surfaces, illustrating the feasibility of the flexible tactile sensor for biomedical grasper by mimicking human skin.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.30 no.6
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• pp.388-394
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• 2021

The conventional microelectromechanical system (MEMS) process has been used to fabricate sensors with high costs and high-volume productions. Emerging 3D printing can utilize various materials and quickly fabricate a product using low-cost equipment rather than traditional manufacturing processes. 3D printing also can produce the sensor using various materials and design its sensing structure with freely optimized shapes. Hence, 3D printing is expected to be a new technology that can produce sensors on-site and respond to on-demand demand by combining it with open platform technology. Therefore, this paper reviews three standard 3D printing technologies, such as Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM), Direct Ink Writing (DIW), and Digital Light Processing (DLP), which can apply to the sensor fabrication process. The review focuses on strain/load sensors having both sensing material features and structural features as well. NCPC (Nano Carbon Piezoresistive Composite) is also introduced as a promising 3D material due to its favorable sensing characteristics.

• Transactions on Electrical and Electronic Materials
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• v.13 no.5
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• pp.215-220
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• 2012

Miniature ultrasonic and tactile sensors on Si substrate have been proposed, fabricated and characterized to detect objects for a dexterous robot. The ultrasonic sensor consists of piezoelectric PZT thin film on a Pt/Ti/$SiO_2$ and/or Si diaphragm fabricated using a micromachining technique; the ultrasonic sensor detects the piezoelectric voltage as an ultrasonic wave. The sensitivity has been enhanced by improving the device structure, and the resonant frequency in the array sensor has been equalized. Position detection has been carried out by using a sensor array with high sensitivity and uniform resonant frequency. The tactile sensor consists of four or three warped cantilevers which have NiCr or $Si:B^+$ piezoresistive layer for stress detection. Normal and shear stresses can be estimated by calculation using resistance changes of the piezoresitive layers on the cantilevers. Gripping state has been identified by using the tactile sensor which is installed on finger of a robot hand, and friction of objects has been measured by slipping the sensor.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.6 no.5_6
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• pp.641-659
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• 2010

Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) gradually becomes a technique for ensuring the health and safety of civil infrastructures and is also an important approach for the research of the damage accumulation and disaster evolving characteristics of civil infrastructures. It is attracting prodigious research interests and the active development interests of scientists and engineers because a great number of civil infrastructures are planned and built every year in mainland China. In a SHM system the sheer number of accompanying wires, fiber optic cables, and other physical transmission medium is usually prohibitive, particularly for such structures as offshore platforms and long-span structures. Fortunately, with recent advances in technologies in sensing, wireless communication, and micro electro mechanical systems (MEMS), wireless sensor technique has been developing rapidly and is being used gradually in the SHM of civil engineering structures. In this paper, some recent advances in the research, development, and implementation of wireless sensors for the SHM of civil infrastructures in mainland China, especially in Dalian University of Technology (DUT) and Harbin Institute of Technology (HIT), are introduced. Firstly, a kind of wireless digital acceleration sensors for structural global monitoring is designed and validated in an offshore structure model. Secondly, wireless inclination sensor systems based on Frequency-hopping techniques are developed and applied successfully to swing monitoring of large-scale hook structures. Thirdly, wireless acquisition systems integrating with different sensing materials, such as Polyvinylidene Fluoride(PVDF), strain gauge, piezoresistive stress/strain sensors fabricated by using the nickel powder-filled cement-based composite, are proposed for structural local monitoring, and validating the characteristics of the above materials. Finally, solutions to the key problem of finite energy for wireless sensors networks are discussed, with future works also being introduced, for example, the wireless sensor networks powered by corrosion signal for corrosion monitoring and rapid diagnosis for large structures.

• ETRI Journal
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• v.38 no.4
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• pp.685-694
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• 2016

A surface micromachined piezoresistive pressure sensor with a novel internal substrate vacuum cavity was developed. The proposed internal substrate vacuum cavity is formed by selectively etching the silicon substrate under the sensing diaphragm. For the proposed cavity, a new fabrication process including a cavity side-wall formation, dry isotropic cavity etching, and cavity vacuum sealing was developed that is fully CMOS-compatible, low in cost, and reliable. The sensitivity of the fabricated pressure sensors is 2.80 mV/V/bar and 3.46 mV/V/bar for a rectangular and circular diaphragm, respectively, and the linearity is 0.39% and 0.16% for these two diaphragms. The temperature coefficient of the resistances of the polysilicon piezoresistor is 0.003% to 0.005% per degree of Celsius according to the sensor design. The temperature coefficient of the offset voltage at 1 atm is 0.0019 mV and 0.0051 mV per degree of Celsius for a rectangular and circular diaphragm, respectively. The measurement results demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed pressure sensor as a highly sensitive circuit-integrated pressure sensor.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Manufacturing Technology Engineers
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• v.9 no.5
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• pp.105-111
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• 2000

Micronization of sensor is a trend of the silicon sensor development with regard to a piezoresistive silicon pressure sensor, the size of the pressure sensor diaphragm have become smaller year by year, and a microaccelerometer with a size less than 200~300${\mu}{\textrm}{m}$ has been realized. Over the past four or five years, numerical modeling of microsensors and microstructures has gradually been developed as a field of microelectromechanical system(MEMS) design process. In this paper, we study some of the micromachining processes of single crystal silicon(SCS) for the microaccelerometer, and their subsequent processes which might affect thermal and mechanical loads. The finite element method(FEM) has been a standard numerical modeling technique extensively utilized in structural engineering discipline for component design of microaccelerometer. Temperature rise sufficiently low at the suspended beams. Instead, larger temperature gradient can be seen at the bottom of paddle part. The center of paddle part becomes about 5~2$0^{\circ}C$ higher than the corner of paddle and suspended beam edges.

• Journal of the Microelectronics and Packaging Society
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.55-59
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• 2018

In this paper, we investigated the characteristics of shear stress type piezoresistor on a diaphragm structure formed by MEMS (Microelectromechanical System) technology of silicon-direct-bonding (SDB) wafers with Si/$SiO_2$/Si-sub. The diaphragm structure formed by etching the backside of the wafer using a TMAH aqueous solution can be used for manufacturing various sensors. In this study, the optimum shape condition of the shear stress type piezoresistor formed on the diaphragm is found through ANSYS simulation, and the diaphragm structure is formed by using the semiconductor microfabrication technique and the shear stress formed by boron implantation. The characteristics of the piezoelectric resistance are compared with the simulation results. The sensing diaphragm was made in the shape of an exact square. It has been experimentally found that the maximum shear stress for the same pressure at the center of the edge of the diaphragm is generated when the structure is in the exact square shape. Thus, the sensing part of the sensor has been designed to be placed at the center of the edge of the diaphragm. The prepared shear stress type piezoresistor was in good agreement with the simulation results, and the sensitivity of the piezoresistor formed on the $2200{\mu}m{\times}2200{\mu}m$ diaphragm was $183.7{\mu}V/kPa$ and the linearity of 1.3 %FS at the pressure range of 0~100 kPa and the symmetry of sensitivity was also excellent.