Remotely interrogated MEMS pressure sensor

Ibrahim, Amr (2012) Remotely interrogated MEMS pressure sensor. PhD thesis, University of Glasgow.

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Printed Thesis Information: https://eleanor.lib.gla.ac.uk/record=b2978405

Abstract

This thesis considers the design and implementation of passive wireless microwave readable pressure sensors on a single chip. Two novel-all passive devices are considered for wireless pressure operation.
The first device consists of a tuned circuit operating at 10 GHz fabricated on SiO2 membrane, supported on a silicon wafer. A pressure difference across the membrane causes it to deflect so that a passive resonant circuit detunes. The circuit is remotely interrogated to read off the sensor data. The chip area is 20 mm2 and the membrane area is 2mm2 with thickness of 4 µm. Two on chip passive resonant circuits were investigated: a meandered dipole and a zigzag antenna. Both have a physical length of 4.25 mm. the sensors show a shift in their resonant frequency in response to changing pressure of 10.28-10.27 GHz for the meandered dipole, and 9.61-9.58 GHz for the zigzag antenna. The sensitivities of the meandered dipole and zigzag sensors are 12.5 kHz and 16 kHz mbar, respectively.
The second device is a pressure sensor on CMOS chip. The sensing element is capacitor array covering an area of 2 mm2 on a membrane. This sensor is coupled with a dipole antenna operating at 8.77 GHz. The post processing of the CMOS chip is carried out only in three steps, and the sensor on its own shows a sensitivity of 0.47fF/mbar and wireless sensitivity of 27 kHz/mbar. The MIM capacitors on membrane can be used to detune the resonant frequency of an antenna.

Item Type: Thesis (PhD)
Qualification Level: Doctoral
Keywords: Pressure sensor, MEMS, CMOS-MEMS
Subjects: T Technology > TK Electrical engineering. Electronics Nuclear engineering
Colleges/Schools: College of Science and Engineering > School of Engineering > Electronics and Nanoscale Engineering
Supervisor's Name: Cumming, Prof. David
Date of Award: 2012
Depositing User: Mr Amr Ibrahim
Unique ID: glathesis:2012-4149
Copyright: Copyright of this thesis is held by the author.
Date Deposited: 22 Apr 2013 14:21
Last Modified: 22 Apr 2013 14:26
URI: https://theses.gla.ac.uk/id/eprint/4149

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