INTRODUCTION OF CAPACITIVE MEMS MICROPHONE AND IMPROVEMENT
PERFORMANCE BY DUAL-BACKPLATE & EXTRA HINGE DESIGN
Z. Qin 1*, Y. Lu1*
1Cornell University, Electrical and Computer Engineering ECE5320, Ithaca, New York, USA
ABSTRACT
This paper is the ECE 5320 final project deliverable,
introducing a contemporary MEMS device – Capacitive MEMS
Microphone and an improvement on its performance by the dual-
backplate & extra hinge design. This paper reports on the basic
concepts, structures, operating principles, characteristics, and
performance of a contemporary capacitive MEMS microphone. The
MEMS design part is focused more on this paper since it is the final
project of a MEMS course. Also, the dual-backplate & extra hinges
MEMS design used to improve the performance of the capacitive
microphone is presented. The simulation and data done by L-MEMS
and COMSOL are included to demonstrate the MEMS design and
performance improvement.
INTRODUCTION
Microphones are equipment we use a lot in daily life. General
microphones have reasonable sizes that users can hold in their
hands. With the MEMS technology, it is possible that microphones
can also be made in micro or nano scale that are much smaller than
the normal microphones. With this idea, lots of MEMS researchers
developed various MEMS microphones with different designs and
characteristics. These MEMS microphones can be applied to various
small electronic devices like smartphones, smart home devices,
hearing aids, etc., to fulfill people’s needs. This paper is mainly
focused on one specific design of MEMS microphone, which is the
Capacitive MEMS Microphone. The concepts, design structure,
working principle, characteristics, and performance of the
Capacitive MEMS Microphone are presented in more detail in the
rest of the paper. Also, a dual-backplate & extra hinged MEMS
design with L-MEMS & COMSOL simulation which can improve
the capacitive MEMS microphone performance is discussed.
GENERAL CAPACITIVE MEMS MICROPHONE
Concepts
A MEMS microphone is an electronic device package
including a MEMS-designed sensor (electroacoustic transducer)
and a CMOS circuit in micro or nano scales in the package. The
Capacitive MEMS Microphone is one specific classification of
MEMS microphone. It shares the general concepts of MEMS
microphones. But the difference between the Capacitive MEMS
Microphone and other MEMS microphone designs is that the
Capacitive MEMS Microphone uses the capacitance change
between the backplate and diaphragm as the source of signals input
of the CMOS, but other MEMS microphones use other approaches
to produce the input signals for the CMOS to generate electrical
signals.
Design Structure
The basic structure of the capacitive MEMS microphone is
composed of a mechanical enclosure package, a MEMS sensor
(transducer), and a CMOS circuit. For the mechanical enclosure
package, it is a container for the MEMS sensor and CMOS, there is
usually a hole/port as the entrance of the acoustical waves. The
hole/port is located on either top or bottom of the package depending
on where the designers want the acoustical waves to enter the
package. The MEMS sensor (transducer), it is composed of a
(moving) diaphragm, a (static) perforated backplate with electrodes
on the plate, and the substrate. The diaphragm moves as acoustical
waves come from the sound hole (port), but the perforated backplate
is static. There is also an air gap between the diaphragm and the
backplate to allow the sensor to work properly. The perforated
backplate design allows the air in the air gap to flow to damp the
motions of the moving diaphragm. The substance is simply used to
support the whole MEMS sensor structure. For CMOS, the CMOS
is located beside the MEMS sensor in the package. Usually, the
MEMS sensor is connected to the CMOS by a wire bonding. The
CMOS in capacitive MEMS microphones is used to transfer the
input acoustic pressure signal into analog electrical signals for future
processing. Figure 1 shows the basic structure of a capacitive
MEMS microphone including all the detailed structural features
mentioned in this section.
Figure 1: Basic structure of Capacitive MEMS Microphones with
detailed structural features.
Operating Principles
The basic philosophy of the capacitive MEMS microphone is
that acoustical waves coming through the sound hole (port) can
make the diaphragm move so that the sound pressure will cause the
capacitance change between the diaphragm and perforated
backplate, then the capacitance change can be reflected by the
voltage change through the electrodes and the CMOS can capture
the change to process the signals. Figure 2 presents the basic
operating principles in terms of circuits.
Theoretically, this philosophy can be simulated as the mass-
spring system that was discussed in the ECE 5320 lectures. Figure
3 shows the equivalent mass-spring system. Assume the original
distance between the moving diaphragm and the fixed perforated
backplate is l, the original nominal capacitance between the moving
diaphragm and the fixed perforated backplate is C, the supply
voltage for both the moving diaphragm and the fixed perforated
backplate is V. As the diaphragm is moving, the displacement is d,
so the distance between the moving diaphragm and the fixed
perforated backplate is l – d currently. Let W be the total energy in
the nominal capacitance between the moving diaphragm and the
fixed perforated backplate, so W can be expressed as:
1
𝑊 = 2 𝐶𝑉 2 (1)
Assume Fe is the electrostatic force, to get the electrostatic force Fe,
the total energy W in the nominal capacitance between the moving
diaphragm and the fixed perforated backplate should be
differentiated with respect to the displacement of the moving
diaphragm d. Therefore, after the differentiation, the electrostatic
force Fe can be expressed as:
1 𝜀𝐴
𝐹𝑒 = − 2 (𝑙−𝑑)2 𝑉 2, (2)
where 𝜀 is the permittivity of free space, and A is the area of the
moving diaphragm. Also, the nominal capacitance between the
moving diaphragm and the fixed perforated backplate can be
expressed as:
𝜀𝐴
𝐶 = 𝑙−𝑑 (3)
To make the whole system work, a supply voltage V is required.
However, there must be a restriction to the value of the supply
voltage V, or the whole system will be crushed. Based on the course
content of ECE 5320, a “pull-in” voltage is the upper limit of the
supply voltage. And the maximum displacement that the diaphragm
can have is:
𝑙 specification. Like what the ECE 5320 lectures introduced, SNR
𝑑𝑚𝑎𝑥 = 3 (4)
And this maximum displacement occurs at the “pull in” voltage:
8𝑘𝑙 3
𝑉 = √27𝜀𝐴 (5)
This conclusion was derived in the ECE 5320 lectures, so the whole
derivation process will not be presented here.
Figure 3: General operating principle of Capacitive MEMS
Microphones in terms of circuits.
Characteristics and Performance
To specify if a capacitive MEMS microphone has great
performance or not, some characteristics and parameters should be
discussed. Sensitivity, frequency response, signal-to-noise ratio
(SNR), etc., can all help users to understand the performance of the
capacitive MEMS microphone.
As one of the most significant specifications of capacitive
MEMS microphones, sensitivity represents the relationship between
the input acoustical pressure and output analog electrical signals,
Figure 2: The equivalent mass-spring system illustrating the
working theory of the MEMS part of the Capacitive MEMS
Microphone.
higher sensitivity means that the microphone will produce higher
analog electrical signals under the same conditions of input
acoustical pressures. Therefore, high sensitivity means better
performance. The sensitivity of a capacitive MEMS microphone can
be mathematically expressed as:
𝑉 𝑑
𝑆𝑒𝑛𝑠𝑖𝑡𝑖𝑣𝑖𝑡𝑦 (𝑆) = 𝑙 ∙ 𝛥𝑝 , (6)
where 𝛥𝑝 is the change of acoustical pressure. Frequency response
represents the range of the frequency of acoustical waves that the
capacitive MEMS microphone can reproduce and the relative output
level over this range of frequency. Usually, a great capacitive
MEMS microphone can reproduce the frequency range from 20Hz
to 20kHz which is the largest frequency range a human being can
hear. Also, a flatter frequency response means better performance,
since a flatter frequency response means that microphones will
respond equally to all the frequencies in the range, which is what
users want. The signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) is also an important
represents the ratio of signal level to the noise signal level that
disturbs the signal. SNR can be unitless or in units of dB depending
on the formula used. Usually, SNR can be expressed as:
𝑉𝑠𝑖𝑔𝑛𝑎𝑙 𝑃𝑠𝑖𝑔𝑛𝑎𝑙
𝑆𝑁𝑅 = or 𝑆𝑁𝑅 𝑖𝑛 𝑑𝐵 = 10𝑙𝑜𝑔 ( 𝑃 ) (7)
𝑉𝑛𝑜𝑖𝑠𝑒 𝑛𝑜𝑖𝑠𝑒
DESIGN IMPROVEMENT ANALYSIS
Original Capacitive MEMS Microphone Model
The team built an original capacitive MEMS microphone
model on L-MEMS Pro based on the structure and details discussed
above in Figure 1. A diaphragm and a perforated static backplate are
Figure 4: Vertical cross section of the capacitive MEMS
microphone model 1 built on L-MEMS Pro.
on the top of the Silicon substrate. There is also an air gap between
these two layers. Acoustical waves will come from the backplate
and make the diaphragm move. The detailed fabrication flow and
specifications can be found in the supplementary material. Figure 4
shows the vertical cross section of the original capacitive MEMS
microphone model.
Improvement by Dual-Backplate Design
According to the current research on the capacitive MEMS
microphone, most of the designs are composed of one diaphragm
and one backplate, therefore, there will only be one capacitance
change. From the capacitance model learned from the lectures,
double capacitance change will give higher output voltages, which
means more electrical signals converted from the acoustical waves.
Figure 5 shows the equivalent double capacitance changes model.
Theoretically, compared to one capacitance change, the double
capacitance change gives higher V’out which can be expressed as:
𝑑 𝑑
𝑉 ′𝑜𝑢𝑡−2𝑏𝑝 = 𝑉𝐷𝐷 𝑙 > 𝑉 ′𝑜𝑢𝑡−1𝑏𝑝 = 𝑉𝐷𝐷 2𝑙 (8)
To achieve the double capacitance changes, a dual-backplate design
Figure 4: Vertical cross section of the capacitive MEMS
microphone model 1 built on L-MEMS Pro.

was created. Adding another same backplate on the other side of the Figure 6: Diaphragm Design Planform, the central square
diaphragm with the same air gap, as the acoustical waves come from represents the diaphragm,
one side of the backplate and the diaphragm moves, then the model
will achieve double capacitance change in two air gaps to give pressure on the whole diaphragm in equation (10):
higher output voltages. The dual backplate design was also modeled
on L-MEMS Pro. Figure 5 shows the vertical cross section of the 𝑘𝑒𝑞𝑢 𝑑 = 𝑃𝑆 (10)
dual backplate design.
where 𝑑 indicates the deflection of the diaphragm, and 𝑃 indicates
pressure generated by acoustic waveform and 𝑆 indicates the area of
the diaphragm. Substitute equations (9) and (10) with (8), we obtain
the relationship between the acoustic pressure and output voltage:
1 1 1
𝑃𝑆[(𝑤 )𝐿1 3 +(𝑤 )𝐿2 3 +(𝑤 )𝐿3 3 ]
𝑉 ′𝑜𝑢𝑡 = 𝑉𝐷𝐷 1 2 3
(11)
Figure 5: Vertical cross section of the dual-backplate design of the 4𝐸ℎ 3 𝑙
capacitive MEMS microphone.
Design Specification and Fabrication
Improvement by Extra Hinge Design It can be observed that there is a subtle balance between every
However, we realized that converting microphone MEMS from parameter. In this design, we set the parameters as in Table 1.
single-backplate to dual-backplate still has several drawbacks.
When acoustic pressure is applied to the diaphragm, the deflection Table 1: Design details of the extra hinge design.
of the diaphragm decides the capacitance in the circuit as shown in Layer Value
Figure 4 influences the result of output voltage. Due to the constraint 𝑤1, 𝑤3 110𝜇𝑚
that the edge of the diaphragm is anchored into the sidewall, non- 𝐿1 , 𝐿3 60𝜇𝑚
linear and relatively small bending arises. These two properties 𝑤2 30𝜇𝑚
complicate the model and reduce the capacitance change as well as 𝐿2 100𝜇𝑚
sensitivity according to equation (6). To get over these problems, we ℎ 2𝜇𝑚
designed four hinges, each behaving like a spring, to hold the l 2𝜇𝑚
diaphragm as shown in Figure 7 inspired by the structure that was 𝑉𝐷𝐷 2.5V
offered in HW3. In this case, we can regard the whole diaphragm as
a horizontal plate which is more feasible and accurate for us to The team used L-MEMS Pro to build this design. 50 𝜇𝑚 thickness
quantitatively control the output voltage. Without the constraint silicon is used as a substrate. Polysilicon is used as both backplates
from the anchored diaphragm edge, deflection of the diaphragm and the diaphragm for its good compliance. To prevent voltage
becomes larger with respect to the same tension. interference between the diaphragm and the backplate, 1𝜇𝑚 Silicon
Nitride is used to implement isolation. To output voltage from
Each hinge can be regarded as three springs in series where each polysilicon, we etch three tunnels and fill them with nickel
spring is modeled as a guided spring. The spring constant for this connected to three pads which will be wired to the CMOS circuit.
model as four hinges connected in parallel can be calculated: During the fabrication, we deposit the bottom backplate, diaphragm
and the top diaphragm in sequence in a stack-style structure. The
4𝐸ℎ 3
𝑘𝑒𝑞𝑢 = 1 1 1 (9) specific model is included in the supplementary material.
(𝑤 )𝐿1 3 +(𝑤 )𝐿2 3 +(𝑤 )𝐿3 3
1 2 3

where 𝐿1 , 𝑊1 , 𝐿2 , 𝑊2 , 𝐿3 , 𝑊3 indicate length and width for each
division of a single hinge, ℎ indicates the thickness of the
diaphragm. According to Hooke’s law, we can obtain the deflection
of the diaphragm assuming it is in equilibrium state and identical
COMSOL SIMULATION
Solid Mechanics Module
As we learned the COMSOL in the ECE 5320 labs, the team
was trying to simulate the models in COMSOL. First, the solid
mechanics module was used to simulate the shape change of the
diaphragm. A pressure load of 300Pa was applied from the
backplate, and everywhere else was fixed. Figure 7 shows the shape
change of the diaphragm after loading the pressure. Theoretically,
the shape change should be smaller than 𝑑𝑚𝑎𝑥 , however, the
COMSOL simulation showed a larger shape change since the shape
change in COMSOL simulation will not be exact, and it only shows
users that there is a shape change.
Pressure Acoustics Module
The pressure acoustics module is particularly used to simulate
the acoustics model. Instead of simulating the exact 3D model, the
team built up 2D models which are the cross sections of those 3D
models. The first 2D model is based on the original capacitive
MEMS model. An acoustical pressure plot is shown in Figure 8.
From the plot, it is found that. The second 2D model is based on the
dual-backplate design. Figure 9 shows the acoustical pressure plot
for the 2D of the dual-backplate design. From the simulation plot, it
can be clearly seen that the acoustical pressure of the dual-backplate
design at the electrodes is obviously higher than the original design,
which means that electrodes can sense more acoustical pressure in
the dual-backplate design under the same conditions. Therefore, the
dual-backplate shows a better performance.
RESULT & DISCUSSION
Theoretically, the performance of capacitive MEMS
microphones depends on some factors, like sensitivity, frequency
response, SNR, etc. In this project, a dual-backplate design and an
extra hinge design were created to improve the performance in
aspects of sensitivity and SNR. By using the equations mentioned in
this paper, with the dual-backplate design, assuming the same noise
voltage for both models, Vdd = 2.5V, and the input acoustical
pressure is 20Pa, the output voltage can be increased from 58.06mV
to 116.12mV which means the SNR can be increased by 58.06mV.
Therefore, the dual-backplate design achieves an enhancement of
the SNR of the original design of the capacitive MEMS microphone.
With the extra hinge design, based on the previous equations, given
the same 2.5V Vdd, assume the input acoustical pressure is 20Pa, the
output voltage is 190.59mV, which means the SNR can be increased
by 132.53mV. Also, given the same 2.5V Vdd, compared to the
original design, the sensitivity of the extra hinge design is increased
from 5.8mV/Pa to 9.53mV/Pa. Therefore, the extra hinge design can
bring a higher performance improvement on both SNR and
sensitivity.
Figure 7: the shape changes of the diaphragm after loading the
pressure from the backplate.
Figure 8: Acoustical pressure of the original design (left) and
Acoustical pressure of the dual-backplate design (right).
CONCLUSION
In this final project, we briefly introduced the concepts,
structures, operating principles, characteristics, and performance of
a contemporary capacitive MEMS microphone. A dual-backplate
with extra hinge design was also introduced. The sensitivity and
SNR of each design were discussed. By theoretical analysis,
calculation, and simulations, it was found that the dual-backplate
with extra hinge design would give higher sensitivity and higher
SNR to improve the performance of capacitive MEMS
microphones.
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CONTACT
*Z. Qin, zq72@cornell.edu
*Y. Lu, yl3524@cornell.edu