ELECTRIC FIELD MICROSENSOR BASED ON THE STRUCTURE OF PIEZOELECTRIC INTERDIGITATED CANTILEVER BEAMS

• Published in: Journal of electronics (China) Vol. 31; no. 6; pp. 497 - 504
• Main Authors: Feng, Ke, Tong, Jianhua, Wang, Yu, Fang, Dongming, Xia, Shanhong
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Heidelberg Science Press 01.12.2014
• Subjects: Electrical Engineering; Engineering; Micro-ElectroMechanical Systems (MEMS); Electric field microsensor; O441.5; PieZoelectric ceramic Transducer (PZT) driven; Piezoelectric
• ISSN: 0217-9822; 1993-0615
• DOI: 10.1007/s11767-014-4164-9

This paper presents the design, fabrication, and preliminary experimental result of an electric field microsensor based on the structure of piezoelectric interdigitated cantilevers with staggered vertical vibration mode. The working principle of this electric field microsensor is demonstrated, and the induced charges and structural parameters of this microsensor are simulated by the finite element method. The electric field microsensor was fabricated by Micro-Electro Mechanical Systems （MEMS） technique. Each cantilever is a multilayer compound structure （A1/Si3N4/ Pt/PZT/Pt/ Ti/SiO2/Si）, and Piezoelectric, PieZoelectric ceramic Transducer （PZT） （PbZrxTi（1-x）O3） layer, prepared by sol-gel method, is used as the piezoelectric material to drive the cantilevers vibrating. This electric field microsensor was tested under the DC electric field with the field intensity from 0 to 5 × 10^4 V/m. The output voltage signal of the electric field microsensor has a good linear relationship to the intensity of applied electric field. The performance could be improved with the optimized design of structure, and reformative fabrication processes of PZT material.