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UNIT-3

MICRO SENSORS
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MEMS Sensors: Design of Acoustic wave sensors, Vibratory gyroscope, Capacitive
Pressure sensors, Case study: Piezoelectric energy harvester
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Introduction
Sensor
A device that converts a non-electrical physical or chemical quantity into an electrical
signal.
 What can be sensed? Almost Everything!!!
Commonly sensed parameters are:
 Pressure
 Temperature
 Flow rate
 Radiation
 Chemicals

Micro sensors (MEMS Sensors)

 Micro sensors are two- and three-dimensional micromachined structures that have
smaller size, improved performance, better reliability, and lower production costs than
many alternative forms of sensor.
 Typical sizes of microsensors range between 10 μm (0.01 mm or 10−5 m) up to 5 mm.
 The defining feature of any MEMS device is an element with some sort of mechanical
functionality integrated with microelectronics.
 Microsensors can be regarded as miniature transducers, since they convert energy in
the form of a measured mechanical signal into energy in electrical form.
 Individual devices vary from simple ones where the mechanical part does not move to
much more complex ones involving several moving elements.
 Currently, devices to measure temperature, pressure, force, acceleration, rotational
velocity, humidity, sound, magnetic fields, radiation, optical, biological, biomedical,
and chemical parameters are either in production or at advanced stages of research.
 Silicon is an ideal material for sensor construction because of its excellent mechanical
properties.

USES
 Micro sensors are currently used most commonly for measuring pressure,
acceleration, force, and chemical parameters.
 They are used in particularly large numbers in the automotive industry, where unit
prices can be very low.

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 Microsensors are also widely used in medical applications, particularly for blood
pressure measurement.
 Mechanical microsensors transform measured variables such as force, pressure, and
acceleration into a displacement.
 The displacement is usually measured by capacitive or piezo resistive techniques,
although some devices use other technologies such as resonant frequency variation,
resistance change, inductance change, the piezoelectric effect, and changes in
magnetic or optical coupling.

Design of Acoustic wave sensors

Acoustic:
Acoustics is the branch of physics that deals with the study of mechanical waves in
gases, liquids, and solids including topics such as vibration, sound, ultrasound and infrasound.

Design, sensing mechanisms and applications:

 An acoustic wave sensor is an electronic device that can measure sound levels. They
are called acoustic wave sensors because their detection mechanism is a mechanical
(or acoustic) wave.
 When an acoustic wave (input) travels through a certain material or along the surface
of a material, it is influenced by the different material properties and obstacles it
travels through.
 Any changes to the characteristics of this travelling path affect the velocity and/or
amplitude of the wave.
 These characteristics are translated into a digital signal (output) using transducers.
These changes can be monitored by measuring the frequency or phase characteristics
of the sensor. Then these changes can be translated to the corresponding physical
differences being measured.
 Acoustic waves are currently being used in a wide range of sensor fields including
physical sensing, chemical sensing and biosensing.
 Their implementation requires specific knowledge of materials, acoustic wave
properties, device design and the sensing mechanisms involved for a wide range of
applications.
 The development of IC-based processes, thin-film deposition and sensitive layer
fixation will allow for the integration of a total physical and chemical analysis system
in the one IC package, leading to the evolution of smart sensors.
 Virtually all acoustic wave devices and sensors use a piezoelectric material to generate
the acoustic wave.
 Piezoelectricity refers to the production of electrical charges by the imposition of
mechanical stress. The phenomenon is reciprocal.
 Applying an appropriate electrical field to a piezoelectric material creates a
mechanical stress.
 Piezoelectric acoustic wave sensors apply an oscillating electric field to create a

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mechanical wave, which propagates through the substrate and is then converted back
to an electric field for measurement.
 Among the piezoelectric substrate materials that can be used for acoustic wave
sensors and devices, the most common are quartz (SiO2), lithium tantalate (LiTaO3),
and, to a lesser degree, lithium niobate (LiNbO3).
 An interesting property of quartz is that it is possible to select the temperature
dependence of the material by the cut angle and the wave propagation direction.

The principle of an acoustic wave sensor:

 All acoustic wave devices and sensors use a piezoelectric material to generate the
acoustic wave. Piezoelectricity essentially means electricity resulting from pressure.
 It refers to the production of electrical charges as a result of mechanical stress.
 The sensors normally use two inter digital transducer (IDT) that can convert the
incoming signal into a mechanical wave signal trough a piezoelectric substrate.
 The transducers are interlocked electrodes in a comb-structure. What they do is
turning an electrical signal into a mechanical wave and converts it into an electrical
signal again.
 The distance of these electrodes determines the frequency of the wave and can be used
to register torque or strain (the distance changes when deformed).
 The performance of these sensors can be changed by varying the length, width and
position of the IDT.
 Piezoelectric acoustic wave sensors are relatively cheap, rugged, very sensitive,
reliable, and can be used passively (without a power source) and wirelessly.

Sensing Mechanisms

 The acoustic sensors for various frequency ranges. The audible range sensors are
generally called the microphones; however, the name is often used even for the
ultrasonic and infrasonic waves.
 For example, for the perception of air waves or vibrations in solids, the sensor is
called a microphone, whereas for the operation in liquids, it is called a hydrophone
(even if the liquid is not water—from the Greek name of mythological water serpent
Hydra). The main difference between a pressure sensor and an acoustic sensor is that

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latter does not need to measure constant or very slow-changing pressures.

 Its operating frequency range usually starts at several hertz (or as low as tens of mill
hertz for some applications), and the upper operating frequency limit is quite high—
up to several megahertz for the ultrasonic applications and even gigahertz in the
surface acoustic-wave device.
 Because acoustic waves are mechanical pressure waves, any microphone or
hydrophone has the same basic structure as a pressure sensor: it is composed of a
moving diaphragm and a displacement transducer which converts the diaphragm’s
deflections into an electrical signal; that is, all microphones or hydrophones differ by
the design of these two essential components.
 Also, they may include some additional parts such as mufflers, focusing reflectors or
lenses, and so forth; however, in this chapter, we will review only the sensing parts of
some of the most interesting, from our point of view, acoustic sensors.
1.Resistive Microphones 2.Condenser Microphones
3.Fiber-Optic Microphone 4.Piezoelectric Microphones

Piezoelectric Microphones

 The piezoelectric effect can be used for the design of simple microphones.
 A piezoelectric crystal is a direct converter of a mechanical stress into an electric
charge.
 The most frequently used material for the sensor is a piezoelectric ceramic, which can
operate up to a very high frequency limit.
 This is the reason why piezoelectric sensors are used for the transduction of ultrasonic
waves. Still, even for the audible range, the piezoelectric microphones are used quite
extensively.
 Typical applications are voice-activated devices and blood pressure measurement
apparatuses where the arterial Korotkoff sounds have to be detected.
 For such acoustically non demanding applications, the piezoelectric microphone
design is quite simple (Fig).
 It consists of a piezoelectric ceramic disk with two electrodes deposited on each side.
The electrodes are connected to wires either by electrically conductive epoxy or by
soldering.
 Because the output impedance of such a microphone is very large, a high-input-
impedance amplifier is required.
 Piezoelectric films [polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) and copolymers were used for
many years as very efficient acoustic pickups in musical instruments.
 One of the first applications for piezoelectric film was as an acoustic pickup for a
violin.
 Later, the film was introduced for a line of acoustic guitars as a saddle-mounted
bridge pickup, mounted in the bridge.

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Fig. Piezoelectric microphone

 The very high fidelity of the pickup led the way to a family of vibration-sensing and
accelerometer applications: in one guitar pickup, a thick film, compressive (under the
saddle) design; another is a low-cost accelerometer, and another is an after-market
pickup design that is taped to the instrument.
 Because of the low Q of the material, these transducers do not have the self-
resonance of hard ceramic pickups. Shielding can be achieved by a fold over design as
shown in Fig.A.
 The sensing side is the slightly narrower electrode on the inside of the fold. The fold
over technique provides a more sensitive pickup than alternative shielding methods
because the shield is formed by one of the electrodes. For application in water, the
film can be rolled in tubes, and many of such tubes can be connected in parallel
(Fig.B).

Fig. Fold over piezoelectric acoustic pickup (A) and arrangement of a piezoelectric film
hydrophone (B).

Applications:
 All acoustic wave sensors are sensitive to changes from many different physical
parameters. These sensors are often used in the telecommunications industry.
 All acoustic wave devices manufactured for the telecommunications industry must be
hermetically sealed to prevent any disturbances.
 The reason for this is that these disturbances will be sensed by the device and cause an
unwanted change in output.
 These sensors can be used as pressure, mass, thickness, torque, shock, acceleration,
angular rate, viscosity, displacement, flow and force detectors under an applied stress
that changes the dynamics of the object it travels through.
 Sensors can also detect mechanical failures or hick-ups such as grinding of
components.
 Other applications are the monitoring of closed systems such as water pipe lines

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irregularities, turbulence, and noise in hydraulic and pneumatic systems and pressure
fluctuations.
 The sensors also have an acoustic electric sensitivity, allowing the detection of pH
levels, ionic contaminants, and electric fields.

Gyroscope
 Gyroscope is a device used for measuring and maintaining orientation and works on the
principle of angular momentum.

 Mechanically, Gyroscope is spinning wheel/disc mounted on axle and axle is

free to assume any direction.

Fig.Mechanical gyroscope
MEMS Gyroscopes
 A gyroscope is a device for measuring or maintaining the orientation, based on the
principles of the conservation of momentum.
 It uses vibrating mechanical element to sense the rotation.
 Transfer of energy between two vibrating resonator is by coriolis acceleration.
 The apparent acceleration that arises in the rotational reference frame is directly
proportional to the rate of rotation.
Types of Gyroscope
 Spinning Gyroscope
 Optical Gyroscope
 Vibrating Gyroscope

Vibratory Gyroscope
Vibratory gyroscope an instrument for determining the angular velocity of an object;
contains vibrating parts that react to the object’s rotation. There are bar and rotor types of
vibratory gyroscope. The sensing element in the bar type is formed by several vibrating
objects similar to the bars of a tuning fork.

Tuning fork Gyroscope

 Contain a pair of masses that are driven to oscillate with equal amplitude but in
opposite direction.
 When rotated the Coriolis force causes a differential sinusoidal force, on individual
tines, orthogonal to main vibration.
 These forces are proportional to applied angular rate, from which displacements can
be measured.

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Fig.Tuning Fork
Basic Operating Principles
 In most micromechanical vibratory gyroscopes, the sensitive element can be
represented as an inertia element and elastic suspension with two prevalent degrees of
freedom (see figure 1).
 Massive inertia element is often called proof mass. The sensitive element is driven to
oscillate at one of its modes with prescribed amplitude. This mode usually is called
primary mode.
 When the sensitive element rotates about a particular fixed-body axis, which is called
sensitive axis, the resulting Coriolis force causes the proof mass to move in a different
mode.

Fig.Operating
F
Principle
 Coriolis force
Force exerted on a body when it moves in rotational reference frame
Fc = - 2m (ω x υ)
 Acts perpendicular to rotation axis and velocity of body in rotating frame
 Contrary to the classical angular rate sensors based on the electromechanical
gyroscopes, information about external angular rate is contained in these different
oscillations rather than non-harmonic linear or angular displacements.
 Hereafter, excited oscillations are referred to as primary oscillations and oscillations
caused by angular rate are referred to as secondary oscillations or secondary mode.
 In general, it is possible to design gyroscopes with different types of primary
and secondary oscillations.
 For example, a combination of translation as primary oscillations and rotation as
secondary oscillations as was implemented in a so-called tuning-fork gyroscope.
 It is worth mentioning that the nature of the primary motion does not necessarily has to
be oscillatory but could be rotary as well. Such gyroscopes are called rotary vibratory
gyroscopes.
 However, it is typically more convenient for the vibratory gyroscopes to be
implemented with the same type and nature of primary and secondary oscillations.
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Applications
The general applications of the tuning fork gyroscope are:
 Yaw rate sensor for skid control in antilock braking applications for
automobiles.
 Inertial navigation systems.
 Smart cruise control.
 Guiding gun launched munitions.
 Detection of roll over detections.

Capacitive pressure sensors

Pressure Sensing
 Pressure is sensed by mechanical elements such as plates, shells,
and tubes that are designed and constructed to deflect when pressure is applied.
 This is the basic mechanism converting pressure to physical movement.
 Next, this movement must be transduced to obtain an electrical or other output.
 Finally, signal conditioning may be needed, depending on the type of sensor
and the application. Figure illustrates the three functional blocks.

Sensing Elements
 The main types of sensing elements are Bourdon tubes, diaphragms,
capsules, and bellows
 All except diaphragms provide a fairly large displacement that is
useful in mechanical gauges and for electrical sensors that require a
significant movement

Capacitive Pressure Sensors

• Capacitive pressure sensors measure pressure by detecting changes in electrical
capacitance caused by the movement of a diaphragm.

• Capacitive sensors can directly sense a variety of things—motion, chemical

composition, electric field—and, indirectly, sense many other variables which can be
converted into motion or dielectric constant, such as pressure, acceleration, fluid level,
and fluid composition.

• They are built with conductive sensing electrodes in a dielectric, with excitation
voltages on the order of five volts and detection circuits which turn a capacitance
variation into a voltage, frequency, or pulse width variation.

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Construction:
• Capacitive pressure sensors typically use a thin diaphragm as one plate of a capacitor.
• Applied pressure causes the diaphragm to deflect and the capacitance to change.
• This change may or may not be linear and is typically on the order of several
picofarads out of a total capacitance of 50-100 pF.
• The change in capacitance may be used to control the frequency of an oscillator or to
vary the coupling of an AC signal through a network.
• The electronics for signal conditioning should be located close to the sensing element
to prevent errors due to stray capacitance.

Working principle:

 A capacitor consists of two parallel conducting plates separated by a small gap. The
capacitance is defined by:

where:
 εr is the dielectric constant of the material between the plates (this is 1 for a
vacuum)
 ε0 is the electric constant (equal to 8.854x1012 F/m),
 A is the area of the plates
 d is the distance between the plates
 The Capacitive pressure sensor operates on the principle that, if the sensing diaphragm
between two capacitor plates is deformed by a differential pressure, an imbalance of
capacitance will occur between itself and the two plates.
 This imbalance is detected in a capacitance bridge circuit and converted to a D.C. output
current of 4 to 20 mA.
 This is shown in Figure, where the movement of a flexible diaphragm relative to a fixed plate
is sensed by the capacitance change. A secondary isolating diaphragm is used to protect the
sensing diaphragm

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 Another type of capacitor uses concentric hollow metal cylinders. The capacitance of
this type just like the flat-plate type is proportional to the area.

 This principle can be applied to differential pressure measurement, as shown in

Figure. The pressure acting on the isolating diaphragms set up similar pressures in the
silicone oil filling the space between them.

 A net force proportional to the difference between the two pressures acts upon the
metal sensing diaphragm and deflects it to one side or the other, depending on which
input pressure is the greater.

 Each plate forms a capacitor with the sensing diaphragm, which is connected
electrically to the metallic body transducer.

• The sensing diaphragm and capacitor thus form a differential variable separation
capacitor. When the two input pressure are equal, the diaphragm is positioned
centrally and the capacitances are equal.

• A difference in the two input pressures causes displacement of the sensing diaphragm
and is sensed as a difference between the two capacitances.

• This change in capacitance is measured using a bridge circuit to measure the

equivalent pressure signal.

Applications
• Capacitive pressure sensors are often used to measure gas or liquid pressures in jet
engines, car tyres, the human body and many other places.
• But they can also be used as tactile sensors in wearable devices or to measure the
pressure applied to a switch or keyboard.
• They are particularly versatile, in part due to their mechanical simplicity, so can be
used in demanding environments.
• Capacitive sensors can be used for absolute, gauge, relative or differential pressure
measurements

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Piezoelectric energy harvester

Energy harvesting

 Energy harvesting transforms green energy sources into usable electrical energy like
solar energy, thermal energy, wind and vibration energy, etc.

 In the recent years micro power electronics and portable storage devices requires low
power requirements for their operations and due to the existing characteristics of such
devices the demand for energy harvesting from the surrounding environment increases
drastically, due to the low power generation of these energy harvesters.

 This technology is very attractive for low power portable electronic devices which
include pacemakers, flashing LEDs at night, mobile phones and hearing aid devices

 One of the most interesting sources for energy harvesting is surrounding

environmental ambient vibrations. The sources used for energy harvesting are
piezoelectric, electromagnetic, electrostatic, pyroelectric, photovoltaic and
thermoelectric.

 Another reason for using piezoelectric materials is its property to extract energy from
ambient vibrations which are readily available from human walking.

 Piezoelectric energy harvesting is getting more attention due to the fact that it can
provide the emergency source for powering low power portable electronic devices in
the hilly areas, public places where rechargeable batteries cannot be powered.

 This wasted energy is captured by some means and that is called as energy harvesting.

 During the human motion there is the movement of various parts of the body
generates vibrations and these vibration energy can be extracted easily by
piezoelectric element into usable electrical energy.

 The use of piezoelectric materials is feasible since they are much flexible and they
can be used with minimal design changes in most of the applications. Heart rate meter
and respiratory rate meter have approximately 3 J of energy consumption for one hour
of operation. Ambient vibrations consist of a travelling wave on a solid material and it
is often not possible to find a relative movement within the reach of a small energy
harvester.

 The piezoelectric materials are attached to the locations where sensible mechanical
vibration has to be coupled to the harvester by means of the inertia of a seismic mass.

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Fig. 1 shows a seismic mass connected to an energy harvester. The mass is also
connected to the outside world by means of a suspension/damper system

Fig.1 Equivalent model of a vibrating piezoelectric structure FUNDAMENTAL OF

PIEZOELECTRIC MATERIAL
 The piezoelectric term comes from a Greek word piezein for pressure electricity.

 The piezoelectric effect exists in two domains; the first is the direct piezoelectric
effect that describes the material’s ability to transform mechanical strain into electrical
charge, the second form is the converse effect, which is the ability to convert an
applied electrical potential into mechanical strain energy. The direct piezoelectric
effect is more suitable for sensor applications, whereas the converse piezoelectric
effect is most of the times required for actuator applications.

 The direct effect and the converse effect may be modelled by the following matrix
equations:
 Direct Piezoelectric Effect: D = d. T + E T. E (1)
 Converse Piezoelectric Effect: S = s E . T + Dt . E (2)
 Where D is the electric displacement vector,
 T is the stress vector,
 εT is the dielectric permittivity matrix at constant mechanical stress,
 sE is the matrix of compliance coefficients at constant electric field strength,
 S is the strain vector, d is the piezoelectric constant matrix, and
 E is the electric field vector.

The subscript t stands for transposition of a matrix. There are two coupling modes for
piezoelectric energy generators, these modes are understood by the direction of the
mechanical force subjected on piezoelectric crystal and electric charge collected on
electrodes. The direction of polarization is conventionally denoted as the „3‟ direction. As
shown in Fig 2 (a), the „33‟ mode implies that charges are collected on the electrode surface
perpendicular to the polarization direction when tensile or compressive mechanical forces are
applied along the polarization axis.

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Fig. 2 Modes of piezoelectric materials (a) „33‟ mode, (b) „31‟ mode

As shown in Fig. 2(b), the „31‟ mode implies that charges are collected on the
electrode surface perpendicular to the polarization direction when force is applied along the
direction perpendicular to the polarization axis.For most piezoelectric materials, the coupling
factor of the 33-mode, k33, is larger than the coupling factor of 31-mode, k31.In the 31-
mode, the mechanical stresses are applied along the 1-axis. The stresses can be easily
achieved by bonding the piezoelectric element to a substructure like rectangular metallic strip
undergoing bending. The 33-mode energy conversion can achieve higher output power by
increasing the layer of the ceramic (Stack type). For very low-pressure source and limited
size, the 31-mode conversion may have a greater advantage in energy conversion For
application of the shoes structure, the dimension of the harvester is less and the environmental
sources for mechanical vibration energy are also limited. The 31-mode energy conversion is
suitable for piezoelectric micro generators used in shoes structures

PIEZOELECTRIC ENERGY HARVESTING SYSTEM(case study)

The vibrations energy harvesting principle using piezoelectric materials [4] is

illustrated in figure 3. The conversion chain starts with a mechanical energy source as human
motion using shoes. Human motion vibrations are converted into electricity via piezoelectric
element. The electricity produced is thereafter converted by an AC-DC rectifier circuit and
DC-DC step up converter before applying to a storage device

Fig. 3 Proposed Energy harvesting system

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In this study, before developing inserted shoe piezoelectric harvester, it was essential
to begin with mechanical vibrations locations identification for doing the analysis output
power, voltage and applied pressure. So we have carried out measurement by placing
piezoelectric element on different locations of an experimental shoe sole Fig. 4 to identify the
locations where more energy harvesting is possible. We could then develop a piezoelectric
energy harvesting system

Fig.4 Piezoelectric element locations on shoe sole

The piezoelectric element was place on various locations of the shoe sole and same
pressure is applied on the piezoelectric element and output voltage is measured at the
locations at heel, sole, between sole and heel and toes with the help of digital multi-meter.
The location near the toes provided the maximum voltage by the single impact. Fig.5 shows
the four locations where the single impact of pressure is applied and voltage is measured. The
same measurement is done while walking with the same pace and an irregular function of
time signal (i.e. AC) is observed on cathode ray oscilloscope as shown in Figure 6.

Fig. 6 Single step output voltage while walking

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