Effects of electric field fringe on performances of grid strip capacitive MEMS devices

Sensing structure of grid strip capacitors can be used in the design of capacitive micro-electromechanical system （MEMS） resonators, accelerometers etc. A grid strip structure consists of nonentirely overlap plates so that the capacitor fringe effect cannot be neglected in the design. Electricmagnetic Finite Element Method （FEM） software ANSOFF-Maxwell is employed to analyze the fringe effect of a grid strip capacitor. The analysis includes capacitance changes with change of overlap length, overlap width, plate thickness, grid strip density etc. The results show that fringe effect leads to non-linear change of grid strip capacitance with the change of overlap length and width, that the capacitance increases with the increase of grid strip width and plate thickness, and that sensitivity can be improved through the increase of grid strip density in the condition of identical total overlap area, but linearity is reduced.

HIGH PERFORMANCE ELECTRIC FIELD MICRO SENSOR WITH COMBINED DIFFERENTIAL STRUCTURE

This paper presents a high performance electric field micro sensor with combined differential structure.The sensor consists of two backward laid micro-machined chips,each packaged by polymer and metal.The novel combined differential structure effectively reduces various environmental affections,such as thermal drift,humidity drift and electrostatic charge accumulation.The sensor is tested in near-ground place as well as balloon-borne sounding.In different weather conditions,the measurement results showed good agreement with those of the commercial electric field mill.

Highly reliable and selective ethanol sensor based on α-Fe2O3 nanorhombs working in realistic environments

A highly reliable and selective ethanol gas sensor working in realistic environments based on alpha-Fe2O3(α-Fe2O3)nanorhombs is developed. The sensor is fabricated by integrating α-Fe2O3 nanorhombs onto a low power microheater based on micro-electro-mechanical systems(MEMS) technology. The α-Fe2O3 nanorhombs, prepared via a solvothermal method, is characterized by transmission electron microscopy(TEM), Raman spectroscopy, x-ray diffraction(XRD), and x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy(XPS). The sensing performances of the α-Fe2O3 sensor to various toxic gases are investigated. The optimum sensing temperature is found to be about 280℃. The sensor shows excellent selectivity to ethanol.For various ethanol concentrations(1 ppm-20 ppm), the response and recovery times are around 3 s and 15 s at the working temperature of 280℃, respectively. Specifically, the α-Fe2O3 sensor exhibits a response shift less than 6% to ethanol at280℃ when the relative humidity(RH) increases from 30% to 70%. The good tolerance to humidity variation makes the sensor suitable for reliable applications in Internet of Things(IoT) in realistic environments. In addition, the sensor shows great long-term repeatability and stability towards ethanol. A possible gas sensing mechanism is proposed.

A trapezoidal cantilever density sensor based on MEMS technology

A trapezoidal cantilever density sensor is developed based on micro-electro-mechanical systems （MEMS） technology. The sensor measures fluid density through the relationship between the density and the resonant frequency of the cantilever im-mersed in the fluid. To improve the sensitivity of the sensor, the modal and harmonic response analyses of trapezoidal and rec-tangular cantilevers are simulated by ANSYS software. The higher the resonant frequency of the cantilever immersed in the fluid, the higher the sensitivity of the sensor; the higher the resonant strain value, the easier the detection of the output signal of the sensor. Based on the results of simulation, the trapezoidal cantilever is selected to measure the densities of dimethyl silicone and toluene at the temperature ranges of 30 to 55 ℃ and 26 cantilever density sensor has a good performance. to 34 ℃, respectively. Experimental results show that the trapezoidal cantilever density sensor has a good pertbrmance.