SOI-MEMS Bulk Piezoresistive Displacement Sensor: A Comparative Study of Readout Circuits

Maroufi, Mohammad; Nikooienejad, Nastaran; Mahdavi, Mohammad; Moheimani, S. O. Reza

doi:10.1109/jmems.2019.2952547

Title: SOI-MEMS Bulk Piezoresistive Displacement Sensor: A Comparative Study of Readout Circuits

Journal Article · 20 December 2019 · Journal of Microelectromechanical Systems

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1109/jmems.2019.2952547 · OSTI ID:1768346

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Univ. of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, TX (United States); The University of Texas at Dallas
Univ. of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, TX (United States)

Performance of several readout circuits, when applied to a MEMS-based bulk piezoresistive displacement sensor is compared in this study. The sensor comprises a pair of tilted clamped-guided silicon beams whose bulk piezoresistivity is used for displacement sensing. Wheatstone half-bridge, constant-voltage, and constant-current circuits are implemented to measure resistance changes of this sensor. We report full characterization of the sensor with these circuits and explore the sensor’s important characteristics such as linearity, bandwidth, and noise. The results reveal that the constant-current circuit provides the highest sensitivity at equal-power bias condition. Here, we find that the resolution of the sensor is degraded from 1.6 nm with the Wheatstone half-bridge and constant-voltage circuits to about 4.2 nm with the constant-current configuration. In the frequency domain, the sensor captures the full dynamics of the MEMS nanopositioner up to 20 kHz with all readout circuits.

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Research Organization:: Univ. of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, TX (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Energy Efficiency Office. Advanced Manufacturing Office

Grant/Contract Number:: EE0008322

OSTI ID:: 1768346

Journal Information:: Journal of Microelectromechanical Systems, Journal Name: Journal of Microelectromechanical Systems Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 29; ISSN 1057-7157

Publisher:: IEEECopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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Whetstone bridge
constant-current circuit
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microelectromechanical system (MEMS) nanopositioner
tilted clamped-guided beam

Title: SOI-MEMS Bulk Piezoresistive Displacement Sensor: A Comparative Study of Readout Circuits

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