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Analysis of Square and Circular Diaphragms for a MEMS Pressure Sensor Using a
Data Mining Tool

Conference Paper · July 2011

DOI: 10.1109/CSNT.2011.63 · Source: IEEE Xplore

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 2011 International Conference on Communication Systems and Network Technologies
Analysis of Square and Circular diaphragms for a MEMS pressure sensor using a Data
Mining tool
K. Y. Madhavi
Department of Physics,
Maharani Science College for Women,
Bangalore, India
madhaviky@gmail.com.
M. Krishna
Director, Research&Development
R.V.College of Engineering
Bangalore, India
krishna_phd@yahoo.co.in
Abstract – Microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) are small
integrated 3 dimensional devices having structures ranging
from sub micron level to millimeter level that combine
electrical and mechanical components on a single substrate.
They find various applications in mechanical, optical and
biological fields due to a reduction in size, the excellent
mechanical properties of silicon, extension of the well
developed designing, fabrication and packaging processes of
the Integrated Circuit (IC) industry, cost effectiveness etc.
The special feature of a smart MEMS sensor is the ability to
integrate sensing, controlling and actuating functions on a
single chip. In this paper various factors which play a critical
role in the performance of a MEMS pressure sensor
diaphragm are discussed. Various parameters like side length,
radius, and maximum stress induced in a square and circular
diaphragm are calculated for a pressure range of 0.1 to 1MPa.
The effects of variations in the applied pressure on the
geometry of the sensing element and the relationship between
applied pressure, the induced stress and the dimensions of the
micro sensing diaphragm are discussed using the WEKA data
mining tool.
Keywords- MEMS Pressure Sensors, Diaphragm design, WEKA
tool.
I. INTRODUCTION
Micro Electro Mechanical devices are essentially smaller,
faster, lighter, and are usually more precise than their solid
state counterparts [1]. The micro fabrication technology
enables miniaturization of complex systems by integrating
sensing controlling and actuating functions on a single chip.
Since the devices fabricated with the microfabrication
techniques are compatible with the current IC fabrication
technology, they can be integrated with electronics to
develop high-performance closed-loop-controlled Micro
Electromechanical Systems (MEMS) [1].
Micro pressure sensors are used to monitor and measure
pressure in various environments. A wide range of
differential, gauge, and absolute micro pressure sensors
based on different transduction principles and a variety of
materials have been developed using MEMS technology[6].
Silicon pressure sensors are the first MEMS devices to be
978-0-7695-4437-3/11 $26.00 © 2011 IEEE
DOI 10.1109/CSNT.2011.63
Sumithradevi.K.A
Dept of MCA,
R.V.College of Engineering,
Bangalore, India
sumithraka@gmail.com
M.N. Vijayalakshmi
Asst.Professor,Dept of MCA
R.V.College of Engineering
Bangalore, India,
mnviju74@gmail.com
fabricated using the micromachining technique.They are
widely used for aerospace, biomedical, automobile and
defence applications [2].
MEMS pressure sensors work on the principle of the
mechanical deformation of a thin diaphragm due to the
pressure exerted by the contact medium like gases, fluids
etc. The mechanical deformation thus caused can be sensed
by piezoresistive, capacitive, optical and resonant methods.
Materials having high strength and reliability are preferred
as sensing elements. Diaphragms are the most important
mechanical components of pressure sensors. The realization
of a robust diaphragm is crucial to the efficiency of the
sensor.The diaphragm of a micro pressure sensor can be
square, circular or rectangular. The geometry and
dimensions of the diaphragm have to be properly selected
for the optimal performance of the sensor. It is therefore
important to study the stress and strain relationships in a
diaphragm for varying side length, radius and pressure to set
the design rules for micro pressure sensors. Membrane
thickness is also a primary factor for the sensitivity of a
sensor. In order to get high sensitivity, the diaphragm
thickness should be thin to maximize the load-deflection
responses. On the other hand, thin diaphragm under high
pressure may result in large deflection and nonlinear effects
that are not desirable [3].
II. WEKA DATA MINING TOOL
Weka is a collection of machine learning algorithms for data
mining tasks. The algorithms can either be applied directly to
a dataset or called from your own Java code. Weka contains
tools for data pre-processing, classification, regression,
clustering, association rules, and visualization. It is also well-
suited for developing new machine learning schemes. Weka
is open source software issued under the GNU General
Public License [4].
The Weka GUI Chooser provides a starting point for
launching Weka’s main GUI applications and supporting
258
tools .The GUI Chooser consists of four buttons one for each The relationship between Pressure, side length, and
of the four major Weka applications and four menus [5]. maximum stress induced can be analyzed using the WEKA
Explorer- An environment for exploring data with Weka Data Mining Tool. The data stored is classified using the
Experimenter-An environment, for performing experiments ‘classifier M5 pruned model rules’ option and the results can
and conducting statistical tests between learning schemes. be visualized.
Knowledge Flow- This supports essentially the same
functions as the Explorer but with a drag-and-drop interface.
One advantage is that it supports incremental learning.
Data visualisation for a Square Diaphragm
Simple CLI - Provides a simple command-line interface that
allows direct execution of WEKA commands for operating
systems that do not provide their own command line
interface.
Using the Explorer it is possible to:
Preprocess: Choose and modify the data being acted on.
Classify: Train and test learning schemes that classify or
perform regression [5].
A. Square Diaphragms
The square diaphragm has the highest induced stress for a
given pressure.Hence it is the preferred geometry for
pressure sensors because, the high stresses generated by
applied pressure loading result in high sensitivity. Also it is
easy to dice the diaphragm from standard wafers [6].
For a square plate clamped at the edges,
The maximum stress σmax at the middle of each edge is:

.

σmax = (1)


Figure 2 Pressure vs Max stress

The maximum deflection wmax at the center for a given
pressure is:


.

wmax = (2)


Where p is the applied pressure, a the side length, h the

diaphragm’s thickness and E the Young’s modulus [7].
Assuming a maximum deflection of 0.42µm a thickness of
5µm and a Young’s modulus of 170GPa the side length for
different pressures is calculated as shown in Table1

Table 1 Side length & maximum stress for different

pressures in a square diaphragm

Pressure Side length in µm Max stress in MPa

in MPa
Analytical WEKA Analytical WEKA
0.1 283.6 283.6 99.07 106
0.2 238.5 242.63 140.11 138.18
0.3 215.5 222.16 171.60 167.4
0.5 189.6 189.6 221.54 212 Figure 1 Pressure vs side length
0.7 174.3 178.4 262.13 262.13
0.9 163.7 161.8 297.23 296.8
1 159.5 153.3 313.31 313

259
 "#$
! = (4)
%%
&' 

The maximum deflection wmax at the center of the plate is:

(%
& ' )
wmax = (5)
.%*"#$

The maximum stress σmax in the membrane is given as:

%.+'
σmax = (6)
#'

Where E, h, and ν are the Young’s modulus, thickness, and

Poisson’s ratio, respectively of the diaphragm. From the
above equations it is clear that the total deflection is directly
proportional to the applied pressure. However, this direct
proportionality no longer holds true. In general, a deflection
measurement scheme which bears linear proportion with
Figure 3 Side length vs Max stress pressure is preferred for easy calibration and measurement
[12]. The maximum deflection at full scale is chosen such
that it does not exceed 25-30% of the capacitance gap for a
capacitive sensor. Assuming a membrane thickness of 5µm
Young’s modulus of 170GPa and a max deflection of
0.42µm the radius of a pressure sensor for different pressures
From the plots it can be seen that as pressure increases can be calculated using
the maximum stress increases in a linear fashion (Fig1). The
side length varies nonlinearly with pressure (Fig2) and as the  ./01 ..%*"#$
side length increases induced stress decreases (Fig3). Hence , = - ν = 0.22 (7)
%
&' 
for greater pressures plates with smaller side lengths are
required. Since the induced stress is more for smaller plates
they will exhibit more sensitivity.
Table 2 shows the radius and maximum induced stress for
different given pressures.
B. Circular diaphragm
The circular diaphragm has the lowest stress on its edges
when applying the same pressure as on a square Table 2 Radius and Maximum stress for different
diaphragm, but the largest centre deflection can be seen in pressures in a circular diaphragm
circular diaphragm. So, in applications in which maximum
deflection plays the prime role the circular diaphragm is
suggested [8]. For the same active area, a circular Pressure Radius in µm Max Stress in MPa
diaphragm gives the largest sensitivity and the rectangular in MPa Analytical WEKA Analytical WEKA
diaphragm gives the smallest sensitivity [9].Since there
are no sharp corners on the circular diaphragm, the 0.1 140.28 140.28 98.3 98.28
maximum stress on the edges is reduced compared to the 0.2 117.6 119.8 139.14 137.42
other two shapes. However, considering area efficiency
and process capability using IC lithography, square and 0.3 106 109.2 168.54 165.6
rectangular diaphragms are commonly used [10]. 0.5 93.8 93.8 219.96 220.29
For the case of a clamped circular plate with small
deflections the form of deflection is [11], 0.7 86.2 86.2 260.06 260.06
0.9 80.99 80.99 295.17 294.75


 =  1 −  (3)
  
1 78.88 78.88 311.10 311.3

Where, ω r, a, and P are the deflection, radial distance from

the centre of the diaphragm, diaphragm radius, and applied
pressure, respectively. D is the flexural rigidity, given by

260

Figure 4 Pressure vs Max stress
Figure 5 pressure vs Radius
Figure 6 Radius vs Max stress
261
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From the plots obtained using the M5 pruned model rules in
the ‘classifier’ option of the WEKA tool it can be seen that
the radius of the diaphragm decreases in a nonlinear manner
with increasing pressure (Fig5), induced stress increases
almost linearly with pressure (Fig4) and as the radius of the
device decreases the induced stress increases in a non linear
manner (Fig6).
III. CONCLUSION
The relationships between the different dimensions of a
square and circular diaphragm have been analyzed using the
Weka tool for a pressure range of 0.1 to 1MPa. According to
this as the pressure increases the size of the membrane has to
become smaller. For the square diaphragm the side length
decreases as pressure increases and smaller plates produce
higher induced stresses. For the circular membrane the
maximum stress decreases as radius increases. This also
shows the fact that smaller diaphragms show greater
sensitivity in measuring pressure which is more effective
REFERENCES
[1] K. N. Bhat “Silicon Micromachined Pressure Sensors”Journal of the
Indian Institute of Science Vol 87:1 Jan–Mar 2007
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[2] Rob Santilli, “Markets for micro engineered products’”European
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[3] Xiaodong Wanga, Baoqing Lia, Onofrio L. Russoa, Harry T.
Romanb, Ken K. China, Kenneth R. Farmera “Diaphragm design
guidelines and an optical pressure sensor based on MEMS technique”
Microelectronics Journal 37 ,50–56, 2006
[4] www.waikato.ac.nz
[5] Mark Hall, Eibe Frank, Geoffrey Holmes, Bernhard Pfahringer, Peter
Reutemann, Ian H. Witten ‘The WEKA Data Mining Software: An
Update’ SIGKDD Explorations, Volume 11, Issue 1,2009.
[6] Tai Ran Hsu “Mems and Microsystems” Tata McGraw-Hill 2002.
[7] Timoshenko S and Woinosky-Krieger S “Theory of Plates and
Shells” 1987.
[8] R. Khakpour, Solmaz R. M. Mansouri A.R. Bahadorimehr
“Analytical Comparison for Square, Rectangular and Circular
Diaphragms in MEMS Applications” 2010 International Conference
on Electronic Devices, Systems and Applications ICEDSA2010.
[9] Q. Wang, “Touch mode capacitive pressure sensor and interface
Circuit”, PhD dissertation, Case Western Reserve University,
Cleveland, OH, USA, Dec. 1997.
[10] W.H. Ko, Q. Wang “Touch mode capacitive pressure sensors”Sensors
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[11] W.C. Young and R. G.Budynas “Roark’s formulas for stress and
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[12] W.P.Eaton and J.H.Smith “Micromachined pressure sensors: Review
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