Design considerations for bulk micromachined 6H-SiC high-G piezoresistive accelerometers

Okojie, Robert S.; Atwell, A R; Kornegay, K.T.; Roberson, S. L.; Beliveau, Alain

doi:10.1109/memsys.2002.984347

Cited by 10 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 5 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Micromachined bulk 6H-SiC piezoresistive sensors including accelerometers (Atwell et al 2003;Okojie et al 2002) and pressure sensors (Ned et al 1998) have been developed for applications operating at temperatures up to 600°C. Besides, a recent work shows the fabrication and testing of 4H-SiC piezoresistive pressure sensors (Okojie et al 2010).…”

Section: Silicon Carbide (Sic)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Studies on SiC, DLC and TiO2 thin films as piezoresistive sensor materials for high temperature application

et al. 2012

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The use of thin films as sensing elements for microsensor applications has been shown very attractive due to their low-cost fabrication, potential for integration with standard CMOS technologies and possibility of deposition on different substrate types. In particular, piezoresistive sensors based on thin films have been commonly developed because can be easily implemented using microfabrication processes and present the best relation between sensitivity and system complexity, which showing great advantages in term of device integration. In our previous works (Fraga et al. 2010(Fraga et al. , 2011a, we studied undoped and nitrogen-doped PECVD a-SiC thin films as alternative materials to replace the silicon piezoresistors in strain and pressure sensors for harsh environments. Here, we focused our attention on the piezoresistive properties of sputtered silicon carbide (SiC), diamond-like carbon (DLC) and titanium dioxide (TiO 2 ) thin films. These materials were evaluated in terms of sensitivity or gauge factor and of the influence of the temperature on this sensitivity, allowing a preliminary analysis of the applicability of these thin films in high temperature piezoresistive sensors.

show abstract

Section: Silicon Carbide (Sic)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Studies on SiC, DLC and TiO2 thin films as piezoresistive sensor materials for high temperature application

et al. 2012

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Main SiC polytypes that are commercially available and relevant to SiC device applications are 4H-, 6H-and 3C-SiC. Hexagonal 4H-and 6H-SiC bulk substrates have been used to fabricate pressure (Okojie et al, 1998) and acceleration (Okojie et al, 2001) sensors through bulk micromachining processes. 3C-SiC is the only SiC polytype that can be synthesised on Si substrates which enables deposition on large-area substrates.…”

Section: Chemical Vapour Deposition Of Sicmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Although the gauge factor of the SiC piezoresistors was compromised with increasing operating temperature, sensing capabilities up to 400°C have been demonstrated. Another important area of technology is SiC accelerometers which are particularly attractive for detecting high-g acceleration at elevated temperatures such as in aeroplane engine, military and space applications (Atwell et al, 2003;Okojie et al, 2001). Recent findings from Pakula and French have demonstrated a CMOS compatible 3D SiC capacitive accelerometer with both vertical and lateral accelerometers fabricated in the same process using PECVD SiC (Pakula et al, 2003a,b).…”

Section: Sic Sensorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A review of silicon carbide development in MEMS applications

Jiang

Cheung

2009

IJCMSSE

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Due to its desirable material properties, Silicon Carbide (SiC) has become an alternative material to replace Si for Microelectromechanical Systems (MEMS) applications in harsh environments. To promote SiC MEMS development towards future cost-effective products, main technology areas in material deposition and processes have attracted significant interest. The developments in these areas have contributed to the rapid emergence of SiC MEMS prototypes. In this paper, we give an overview of the important developments in SiC material formation and fabrication processes in recent years. Some of the most interesting state-of-the-art SiC MEMS devices are reviewed. This highlights the major progresses in SiC MEMS developed thus far. This paper also looks into the prospect of SiC MEMS drawing attention to potential issues.

show abstract

“…Today, these sensors face stringent requirements in terms of low power consumption, low long term drift, excellent stability and high sensitivity [4]. For example, a typical automotive crash sensor is expected to operate within a ±50g range, while an accelerometer used in military missile applications needs to be able to withstand shocks in the order of 10,000g [5]. There are also applications in structural health monitoring and oil and gas exploration where the sensors face harsh or extreme operating conditions that are characterized by high temperature, pressure and vibrations and can involve corrosive ambient media as well.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…To overcome the issues at high temperature, many extreme environment and high operational temperature accelerometers use Silicon Carbide (SiC) based devices due to its superior thermo-mechanical properties [8]. In 2002, Okojie et al [9] demonstrated a piezorestive SiC accelerometers capable of operating at temperatures above 600 o C. Later in 2003, Atwell et al [10] demonstrated a high performance SiC based accelerometer capable of withstanding shocks above 100,000g and operating at elevated temperatures on the order of 500 o C. For many MEMS applications, polycrystalline SiC (poly-SiC) and amorphous SiC (a-SiC) are attractive, particularly in connection with thin-film deposition and surface-micromachining techniques, as protective coating materials and device structural layers for harsh environment applications. Recently, Pakula et al [6,11] presented a high sensitivity CMOS compatible SiC accelerometer capable of withstanding temperatures in the range of 400 o C.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Design and fabrication of three-axis accelerometer sensor microsystem for wide temperature range applications using semi-custom process

et al. 2014

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This paper describes an integrated CMOS-MEMS inertial sensor microsystem, consisting of a 3-axis accelerometer sensor device and its complementary readout circuit, which is designed to operate over a wide temperature range from -55 o C to 175 o C. The accelerometer device is based on capacitive transduction and is fabricated using PolyMUMPS, which is a commercial process available from MEMSCAP. The fabricated accelerometer device is then post-processed by depositing a layer of amorphous silicon carbide to form a composite sensor structure to improve its performance over an extended wide temperature range. We designed and fabricated a CMOS readout circuit in IBM 0.13µm process that interfaces with the accelerometer device to serve as a capacitance to voltage converter. The accelerometer device is designed to operate over a measurement range of ±20g. The described sensor system allows low power, low cost and mass-producible implementation well suited for a variety of applications with harsh or wide temperature operating conditions.

show abstract

Design considerations for bulk micromachined 6H-SiC high-G piezoresistive accelerometers

Cited by 10 publications

References 5 publications

Studies on SiC, DLC and TiO2 thin films as piezoresistive sensor materials for high temperature application

Studies on SiC, DLC and TiO2 thin films as piezoresistive sensor materials for high temperature application

A review of silicon carbide development in MEMS applications

Design and fabrication of three-axis accelerometer sensor microsystem for wide temperature range applications using semi-custom process

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About