MEMS Thermal Flow Sensors— An Accuracy Investigation

Gardner, Ethan L. W.; Vincent, Timothy A.; Jones, Rhys G.; Gardner, Julian W.; Coull, John D.; Luca, Andrea De; Udrea, F.

doi:10.1109/jsen.2019.2891596

Cited by 27 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 22 publications

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“…In theory, to measure the velocity of air in turbulent flows, the bandwidth of the anemometer must be much greater than the frequency of flow fluctuation [22]. After the first micromachined thermal flow sensor reported in 1974 [23], with the rapid development of microfabrication technology, a growing interest in the microthermal flow sensors has been emerged [24][25][26][27][28][29]. To date, complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor micro-electro-mechanical systems (CMOS MEMS) technologies are increasingly being used to fabricate thermal flow sensors [30][31][32].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

RETRACTED: Constant Temperature Anemometer with Self-Calibration Closed Loop Circuit

2020

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In this paper, a Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) calorimetric sensor with its measurement electronics is designed, fabricated, and tested. The idea is to apply a configurable voltage to the sensitive resistor and measure the current flowing through the heating resistor using a current mirror controlled by an analog feedback loop. In order to cancel the offset and errors of the amplifier, the constant temperature anemometer (CTA) circuit is periodically calibrated. This technique improves the accuracy of the measurement and allows high sensitivity and high bandwidth frequency. The CTA circuit is implemented in a CMOS FD-SOI 28 nm technology. The supply voltage is 1.2 V while the core area is 0.266 mm2. Experimental results demonstrate the feasibility of the MEMS calorimetric sensor for measuring airflow rate. The developed MEMS calorimetric sensor shows a maximum normalized sensitivity of 117 mV/(m/s)/mW with respect to the input heating power and a wide dynamic flow range of 0–26 m/s. The high sensitivity and wide dynamic range achieved by our MEMS flow sensor enable its deployment as a promising sensing node for direct wall shear stress measurement applications.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

RETRACTED: Constant Temperature Anemometer with Self-Calibration Closed Loop Circuit

2020

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“…Sensors 4.5.1. Flow Sensors Calorimetric flow sensors and pyroelectric sensors commonly use thin-film membranes to achieve thermal insulation of the sensing elements from the bulk substrate [43,44]. For a general description of this type of sensor, the reader is referred to [45].…”

Section: Porous Solid Phases For Microfluidic Applicationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

PowderMEMS—A Generic Microfabrication Technology for Integrated Three-Dimensional Functional Microstructures

2022

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A comprehensive overview of PowderMEMS—a novel back-end-of-line-compatible microfabrication technology—is presented in this paper. The PowderMEMS process solidifies micron-sized particles via atomic layer deposition (ALD) to create three-dimensional microstructures on planar substrates from a wide variety of materials. The process offers numerous degrees of freedom for the design of functional MEMSs, such as a wide choice of different material properties and the precise definition of 3D volumes at the substrate level, with a defined degree of porosity. This work details the characteristics of PowderMEMS materials as well as the maturity of the fabrication technology, while highlighting prospects for future microdevices. Applications of PowderMEMS in the fields of magnetic, thermal, optical, fluidic, and electrochemical MEMSs are described, and future developments and challenges of the technology are discussed.

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“…Using a Kulicke and Soffa wedge bonder, the sensors were bonded onto Dual in Line (DIL8) packages, raised and filled to ensure a planar surface and integrated into an in-house 3D-printed channel of crosssectional area 1.5 mm × 2.5 mm. A detailed review of the fabrication technology, sensors and their packaging can be found here [19]. Measurements were performed in two separate experimental protocols.…”

Section: A Sensor Design and Fabricationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This enabled the collection of important material properties such as the Temperature Coefficients of Resistance (TCR) and electrothermal efficiency. For more detail on the details of electrothermal characterisation please refer to [19]. Using the information from this characterisation, the measurements with flow and CO2 were carried out using an array of Alicat Mass Flow Controllers (MFC), alongside an array of Keithley 2410 Source Meter Units (SMU) for data acquisition of the three resistors.…”

Section: A Sensor Design and Fabricationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Simultaneous Flow and Thermal Conductivity Sensing on a Single Chip Using Artificial Neural Networks

Gardner

Vincent²,

Luca

et al. 2020

IEEE Sensors J.

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A thin-film CMOS MEMS thermal sensor has been designed, fabricated and tested with the addition of through-membrane isolating holes. These holes have been shown to enhance the discrimination towards gases with differing thermal conductivity in the presence of flow. Using three on-membrane resistors as inputs, linear statistical methods alongside Artificial Neural Network pattern recognition techniques have been investigated for decoupling the two parameters of thermal conductivity and flow rate using a single sensor. In addition to this, the addition of the membrane holes increases the sensitivity towards flow rate by 10 times and the sensitivity towards thermal conductivity by 2 times. This sensor design coupled with well-known post-processing techniques will enable a new generation of multi-parameter sensing solutions.

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MEMS Thermal Flow Sensors— An Accuracy Investigation

Cited by 27 publications

References 22 publications

RETRACTED: Constant Temperature Anemometer with Self-Calibration Closed Loop Circuit

RETRACTED: Constant Temperature Anemometer with Self-Calibration Closed Loop Circuit

PowderMEMS—A Generic Microfabrication Technology for Integrated Three-Dimensional Functional Microstructures

Simultaneous Flow and Thermal Conductivity Sensing on a Single Chip Using Artificial Neural Networks

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