Microfluidic capacitive tilt sensor using PCB-MEMS

This paper presents a low-cost tilt sensor based on fluidic movement and fabricated using PCB-MEMS techniques. The principle of operation is the measurement of capacitance change between two electronics inside a circular channel, partially filled with a non-conductive liquid. Physical principle and...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in2015 IEEE International Conference on Industrial Technology (ICIT) pp. 3356 - 3360
Main Authors Salvador, Blas, Luque, Antonio, Quero, Jose M.
Format Conference Proceeding
LanguageEnglish
Published IEEE 01.03.2015
Subjects
Capacitance
Capacitance measurement
Electrodes
Fabrication
Inclinometer
Liquids
MEMS
Microfluidic
PCB
Robot sensing systems
Surface tension
Tilt Sensor
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Summary:This paper presents a low-cost tilt sensor based on fluidic movement and fabricated using PCB-MEMS techniques. The principle of operation is the measurement of capacitance change between two electronics inside a circular channel, partially filled with a non-conductive liquid. Physical principle and mathematical analysis are presented, followed by the design and fabrication process. This process is based on a combination of standard PCB processing, useful and inexpensive to create copper electrodes, with SU-8 positive photoresist to build the channels. The choice of the liquid to be used has a strong influence on the final behavior, and properties like dielectric permittivity and surface tension must be taken into account simultaneously. Experimental results show that tilt is measured using the prototype device in a range close to 360°, with a sensitivity up to 0.0036pF/° and a bandwidth of 0.18Hz.
DOI:10.1109/ICIT.2015.7125596