Sensors 2013, 13(11), 14728-14739; doi:10.3390/s131114728
Fabrication and Characterization of CMOS-MEMS Magnetic Microsensors
Department of Mechanical Engineering, National Chung Hsing University, Taichung 402, Taiwan
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Received: 13 September 2013 / Revised: 24 October 2013 / Accepted: 28 October 2013 / Published: 29 October 2013
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Modeling, Testing and Reliability Issues in MEMS Engineering 2013)
Abstract
This study investigates the design and fabrication of magnetic microsensors using the commercial 0.35 μm complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) process. The magnetic sensor is composed of springs and interdigitated electrodes, and it is actuated by the Lorentz force. The finite element method (FEM) software CoventorWare is adopted to simulate the displacement and capacitance of the magnetic sensor. A post-CMOS process is utilized to release the suspended structure. The post-process uses an anisotropic dry etching to etch the silicon dioxide layer and an isotropic dry etching to remove the silicon substrate. When a magnetic field is applied to the magnetic sensor, it generates a change in capacitance. A sensing circuit is employed to convert the capacitance variation of the sensor into the output voltage. The experimental results show that the output voltage of the magnetic microsensor varies from 0.05 to 1.94 V in the magnetic field range of 5–200 mT. View Full-TextKeywords:
magnetic sensor; Lorentz force; CMOS; post-process
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Hsieh, C.-H.; Dai, C.-L.; Yang, M.-Z. Fabrication and Characterization of CMOS-MEMS Magnetic Microsensors. Sensors 2013, 13, 14728-14739.