Procedia

Engineering
Procedia Engineering 00 (2009) 000–000

www.elsevier.com/locate/procedia

Proc. Eurosensors XXIV, September 5-8, 2010, Linz, Austria

Lateral Displacement MEMS Sensor

V. Stavrova*, E. Tomerova, G. Stavrevaa, C. Hardalovb, A. Shulevc
a
AMG Technology Ltd., Microelectronica Industrial Zone, 2140 Botevgrad, Bulgaria,
b
Dept. of Applied Physics, Technical University of Sofia,1756 Sofia, Bulgaria
c
Laboratory of Laser Metrology, Institute of Mechanics, BAS, 1113 Sofia, Bulgaria

Abstract

Lateral displacement MEMS sensor with sidewall embedded piezoresistors has been designed and manufactured.
Experimental data confirm lateral displacement sensitivity of 2.32 mV/ m.V. Besides high sensitivity, lateral actuated MEMS
sensor reveals better parameter reproducibility and tight control of both: electrical and mechanical characteristics. Additionally,
analyses of experimental data, found without any output signal amplification, show very good noise immunity of the developed
sensors.

© 2009 Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Keywords: sidewall piezoresistor; lateral displacement; force sensor; cantilever

1. Introduction

Silicon based cantilevers are one of most promising candidates for sensing with nm and sub-nm resolution.
Despite of the efforts spent in development of proper cantilever devices worldwide last decade, they still have a very
limited application in real apparatus. Authors believe that both: application-limiting and technology-complicating
factors for cantilever based MEMS devices could be resolved by change of actuation direction from perpendicular to
wafer surface, to lateral one.
There is a number of papers on lateral actuated MEMS published last fifteen years. Most of them are on devices
with epi/poly-silicon piezoresistors [1] and substantially less number of papers has been found on development of
single-crystal silicon ones [2]. Present paper contributes to the last group of mentioned devices.

2. Description of lateral displacement MEMS sensor

Lateral displacement sensor shown in fig. 1a) has been manufactured on n-type, double-side-polished <100>
wafers, by recently developed technology for fabricating of MEMS with sidewall embedded piezoresistors [3].
For the present study, cantilevers, as shown in fig. 1b), have been designed to comprise of two consecutive parts
in length: a 40μm long narrow element and 560μm - wide part, at both parts being 6μm and 25μm in width,
respectively. The narrow element is disposed at cantilevers’ fixed end.

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +359-888 700 216; E-mail address: vs@amg-t.com.

2 Author name / Procedia Engineering 00 (2010) 000–000

(a) (b)

Fig. 1. (a) SEM micrograph and (b) schematic diagram of lateral sensitive displacement sensor.

Two piezoresistors are located in vertical sidewalls of the cantilever’s narrow element, thus having close and
symmetrical spatial location. Sensing piezoresistors, sketched on zoomed-in detail in fig. 2, are serially connected
and having common output terminal U m. Output signal Um of the voltage divider is expected to have a suppressed
parameter drift and high noise immunity when both of piezoresistors are having identical characteristics.

Vcc Um

Fig. 2. SEM micrograph and equivalent schematic representation Fig. 3. Plot of von Mises effective stress distribution along
of lateral sensitive piezoresistors. the longitudinal axis on the sidewall, as indicated in Fig. 2.

More particularly the sensitivity of developed lateral displacement sensors with voltage divider is boosted:
due to specific layout, the piezoresistors are allocated in the sidewalls of the narrow part of cantilevers’ fixed end.
Thus stress-concentration area co-insides with piezoresitors’ one, which is well indicated in the von Mises
effective stress distribution calculated by FEM and presented in fig. 3. In addition, piezoresistors are self-aligned
to the surface area of maximal stress across the width of cantilevers;
having so connected of piezoresistors sensor has amplified response on lateral and compensated response on
vertical deflection of the cantilever’s free end, thus effectively serving as a polarization filter.

Besides abovementioned feature, present displacement sensor has shown a number of advantages in comparison
with state of the art devices, as: defined-by-design parameters, unlimited variety of sensor layouts, universal
manufacturing technology, etc.

3. Experimental setup

To investigate the behaviour of the developed MEMS device as a displacement sensor an experimental setup has
been realized. A stabilized 2V power supply has been applied to V cc terminal of the MEMS device and the output
signal Um has been measured by a voltmeter with 0.025% accuracy. Cantilever’s free-end has been displaced by a
computer controlled piezoactuator with 0.6 nm resolution and the output signal data have been recorded in the
computer memory. Optical system having magnification of x10 and 4 μm resolution was utilized for alignment of
 Author name / Procedia Engineering 00 (2010) 000–000 3

both: cantilever and actuator ends. To position and adjust the actuator close to the cantilever it was mounted on a
fine positioning stage having three degrees of freedom.

4. Experimental results

Measured results of output voltage Um vs. cantilever free-end displacement for deflection amplitudes D, of 12μm
and 50 μm respectively, have been observed and shown in Fig. 4. The output signal has very good linearity so
according to experimental data one volt of signal amplitude corresponds to 215.18 μm relative displacement, at 2V
power supplied to Vcc terminal. Therefore the MEMS gain as a displacement sensor is 215.18 μm/V, and sensitivity
is 2.32 mV/μm.V. Experiments have been executed by pushing the cantilever free-end, but not pulling it.
-0.93 1.25

-0.94
a) b)
1.2
-0.95

-0.96
1.15

U [ volts ]
U [volts]

-0.97

1.1
-0.98

-0.99
1.05
-1

-1.01 1
0 20 0 20 0 0 55 0 55 0
D [microns] D [microns]

Fig. 4. Output voltage of the lateral MEMS sensor vs. free-end cantilever displacement for 12 μn (a) and 50 μn (b) deflection amplitudes.

Several subsequent frames captured during the sensitivity measurement are shown in Fig. 5. One important
parameter of designed MEMS sensors is the maximum range of deformation they could stand. The optical system
could provide an exact vision evaluation of the cantilever breaking conditions. The break point for several MEMS
cantilevers has been measured with half micrometer accuracy and it appears to be between 155 μm and 165 μm for
MEMS sensors tested. Fig. 5 presents a cantilever that breaks at 163 μm. Therefore, for safety reasons maximum
displacement should not exceed 140 μm.

0 m 70 m 160 m 164 m

Fig. 5. Subsequent frames captured during the lateral displacement sensor bending.

To estimate the parameters of lateral displaced cantilevers as a force sensor on the piezo-actuator end a calibrated
capacitive micro force sensor have been attached. The actuator then translates the whole capacitive sensor pushing
with its tip the cantilever free-end. Subsequent frames captured during the lateral displacement MEMS and force
sensor interaction, are shown in Fig. 6.

0 m 10 m 25 m 50 m

Fig. 6. Subsequent frames captured during the MEMS force calibration.

4 Author name / Procedia Engineering 00 (2010) 000–000

Output signals (red and blue curves) of both sensors have been recorded after each displacement step of the
piezo-actuator, as shown in Fig. 7a. Total displacement was 50μm and incremental step was 1μm. Established linear
correspondence between the piezoresistive lateral MEMS output voltage Um and capacitive sensor‘s output voltage
Uc is presented in Fig. 7b. The capacitive force sensor has a known gain of 414.4 μN/V defined by the producer. In
this way lateral displacement MEMS sensor was calibrated and it was found that one volt change corresponds to a
force of 125.58 μN. Subsequently the MEMS gain as force sensor is 125. V.
Stiffness constant, presenting the force-displacement dependence was found to be 0.58 m for the above
mentioned lateral displacement MEMS sensor.
1.3 1.35
Capacitive sensor
MEMS Um=3.2998 Uc - 2.0689
1.25
1.3

1.2 0 m 10 m 1.25
25 m 50 m
1.15

Um [volts]
U [volts]

1.2
1.1

1.15
1.05

1.1
1

0.95 a) 1.05 b)
0.9 1
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 0.94 0.95 0.96 0.97 0.98 0.99 1 1.01 1.02
D [microns] Uc [volts]

Fig. 7. Output voltage of the capacitive and piezoresistive force sensors measured during calibration.

Now it is important to stress that the maximal force that could be applied to lateral displacement MEMS sensor
should not exceed 82 N otherwise it could be irreversibly damaged.

5. Conclusion

Analyses of experimental data proof lateral displacement sensitivity of 2.32 mV/ m.V, and a 215.18 m/V gain
factor. Besides high sensitivity, lateral actuated MEMS sensor reveals substantial advantages in better parameter
reproducibility and tight control of both: electrical and mechanical characteristics.
Analyses of these data, found without any output signal amplification, proof better than 10 nm displacement
resolution, due to the noise immunity of the lateral displacement sensors described in present paper.
Bearing in mind the variety of application specific layouts which are compatible with presented lateral
displacement sensor, its potential to become preferred tool for dedicated to micro/nano-range characterization
apparatus, has been confirmed.

Acknowledgements

The partial financial support of grant TK171/08 of Bulgarian NSF is gratefully acknowledged.

References

[1] Duc T C, Creemer J F, Piezoresistive Cantilever Beam for Force Sensing in Two Dimensions, IEEE Sensors Journal, Vol.7, No. 1, Jan. 2007.
[2] Chen T, Chen L, Sun L, Wang J, Li X, A Sidewall Piezoresistive Force Sensor Used in a MEMS Gripper, C. Xiong et al. (Eds.): ICIRA 2008,
Part II, LNAI 5315, pp. 207–216, 2008.
[3] Stavrov V, Tomerov E, Stavreva G, Kirov J, New technology for fabricating of lateral actuated MEMS devices, Proceedings of the National
Conference Electronica 2010, Sofia, 2010, pp. 245-250