Design, fabrication and characterization of a high-sensitivity pressure sensor based

on nano-polysilicon thin film transistors

Xiaofeng Zhao, Yang Yu, Dandan Li, and Dianzhong Wen

Citation: AIP Advances 5, 127216 (2015);

View online: https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4938517
View Table of Contents: http://aip.scitation.org/toc/adv/5/12
Published by the American Institute of Physics

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 AIP ADVANCES 5, 127216 (2015)

Design, fabrication and characterization

of a high-sensitivity pressure sensor based
on nano-polysilicon thin film transistors
Xiaofeng Zhao,a Yang Yu, Dandan Li, and Dianzhong Wenb
Key Laboratory of Electronics Engineering, College of Heilongjiang Province,
Heilongjiang University, Harbin, China
(Received 11 August 2015; accepted 7 December 2015; published online 17 December 2015)

Based on the nano-polysilicon thin film transistors (TFTs), a high-sensitivity pres-

sure sensor was designed and fabricated in this paper. The pressure sensing element
is composed of a Wheatstone bridge with four nano-polysilicon TFTs designed on
different positions of the square silicon diaphragm. Via taking the four channel
resistors of the TFTs as piezoresistors, the measurement to the external pressure
can be realized according to the piezoresistive effects of channel layer. Through
adopting complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) technology and micro-
electromechanical system (MEMS) technology, the chips of sensor were fabricated
on < 100 > orientation silicon wafer with a high resistivity. At room temperature,
when applying a voltage 5.0 V to the Wheatstone bridge, the full scale (100 kPa)
output voltage and the sensitivity of the sensor with 35 µm-thick silicon diaphragm
are 267 mV and 2.58 mV/kPa, respectively. The experimental results show that the
pressure sensors can achieve a much higher sensitivity. C 2015 Author(s). All article
content, except where otherwise noted, is licensed under a Creative Commons
Attribution 3.0 Unported License. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4938517]

I. INTRODUCTION
In 1954, Smith found the piezoresistive properties of silicon and germanium in experiment, and
also derived piezoresistive coefficients on the change of resistance with stress. Since then, many of
studies for piezoresistive pressure sensors have been carried out via piezoresistive effects of silicon.1–3
In recent years, with the development of nano-technology, many new types of pressure sensing mate-
rials have been studied to significantly improve the sensitivity for piezoresistive pressure sensors,
such as nanowires,4 nanotubes,5 nano thin films,6,7 MOSFET channel layers,8–15 etc. For example,
Kai et al. proposed a new micro-pressure sensor utilizing indium tin oxide thin films as piezoresistors
in 2007.16 In 2010, Bo et al. proposed a membrane pressure sensor embedded silicon nanowires as
piezoresistors.17 Pushpapraj et al. fabricated a pressure sensor via gate-all-around (GAA) nanowire
field-effect transistor(NWFET) sensing element in 2011.18 Zhang et al. proposed a low power pressure
sensor constructed by MOSFET in 2012.19 Meanwhile, Zhao et al. adopted the channel resistors of
the nc-Si/c-Si heterojunction MOSFETs as piezoresistors to fabricate a pressure sensor, reaching the
sensitivity of 0.72 mV/(V · kPa).20 Nano-materials exhibit excellent pressure sensing characteristics
due to their novel micro-structures. Theoretical analyses and experimental researches indicate that
the polysilicon thin films with nanometer scale (nano-polysilicon thin film or polysilicon nanofilm)
deposited on the SiO2 layer have more superior properties, such as sensitivity, temperature and so
on.21–24
To further improve the properties of pressure sensor, via studying the fabrication process of
nano-polysilicon thin films that are deposited on a high resistivity silicon wafer by low pressure

a Electronic mail: zhaoxiaofeng@hlju.edu.cn

b corresponding author: wendianzhong@hlju.edu.cn

2158-3226/2015/5(12)/127216/8 5, 127216-1 © Author(s) 2015.

127216-2 Zhao et al. AIP Advances 5, 127216 (2015)

chemical vapor deposition (LPCVD), a new type of pressure sensor composed of nano-polysilicon
thin film transistors was designed and fabricated in this work. Comparing with the diffusing silicon
pressure sensor, the impact of the structure parameters on the proposed sensor are also investigated
in the paper.

II. BASIC STRUCTURE AND OPERATING PRINCIPLE

A. Basic structure
The basic structure of the nano-polysilicon TFT designed on a high resistivity < 100 > orienta-
tion silicon wafer is shown in Fig. 1(a), in which L and W are the channel length and width of the
TFT, respectively. For the TFT containing source (S), gate (G) and drain (D), the nano-polysilicon
thin films formed a heterjunction interface with the high resistivity silicon, were used as the channel
layer of the TFT. The thickness and width of the nano-polysilicon channel are 61 nm and 80 µm,
respectively. The structure schematic of the proposed pressure sensor is shown in Fig. 1(b), in which
h and H represent the thicknesses of silicon diaphragm and silicon wafer. The Wheatstone bridge
of the sensor sensing element, constituted by channel resistors of four nano-polysilicon TFTs, was
designed on the square silicon diaphragm with the area of 3.0 mm × 3.0 mm. The channels of two
nano-polysilicon TFTs (TFT1 and TFT3) are parallel with the two opposite edges of the square silicon
diaphragm, and the other two TFTs (TFT2 and TFT4) are perpendicular with the other two edges. The
four nano-polysilicon TFTs are placed in the maximum stress regions of the diaphragms, respectively.

B. Operating principle
The operating principle schematic of the proposed sensor is showed in Fig. 2. Figure 2(a) shows
the structure of Wheatstone bridge composed of four nano-polysilicon TFTs, in which VG1, VG2, VG3
and VG4 are the gate voltages of the four nano-polysilicon TFTs, and VDD is the supply voltage. In order
to realize the measurement to the external pressure, the formed channel layer of the TFT was used
as the pressure sensitive resistor for the proposed sensor at no biased voltage for the gate. As shown
in Fig. 1(a), through adjusting the gate biased voltage of the TFTs, the carriers concentration in the
channel layer and heterjunction interface of the nano-polysilicon thin films/silicon can be changed,
so that further compensating to the zero drift of the pressure sensor and improving its sensitivity (that
will be studied in the other paper). As shown in Fig. 2(b), the Wheatstone bridge without gate biased

FIG. 1. The basic structure of the pressure sensor based on nano-polysilicon TFTs: (a) nano-polysilicon TFT, (b) structure
of the pressure sensor.
127216-3 Zhao et al. AIP Advances 5, 127216 (2015)

FIG. 2. Operating principle of the pressure sensor based on nano-polysilicon TFTs: (a) connection of transistors, (b) equiv-
alent Wheatstone bridge configuration.

is constituted by the four equivalent resistors corresponding every channel of the TFTs, and named
as R1, R2, R3 and R4.
Under ideal conditions, R1 = R2 = R3 = R4 = R0 at zero pressure P, meanwhile, the output
voltage (VOUT) of the Wheatstone bridge can be expressed as:
VOUT = VOUT1 − VOUT2 = 0. (1)
The channel layer of the TFTs is comprised of a great many neutral regions in the gains and
barrier regions existing between the grains. The distribution of Si atoms in the grains is in sequential
order, while disorder between the grains. The elastic deformation of the square silicon diaphragm
caused by an external pressure P leaded to the stresses acted on the channel layers of TFTs to form.
At a constant stress, the internally scattering of carriers in the grains caused the change of carrier
mobility, even resulting in the piezoresistive effects. Meanwhile the change of tunneling current in
the barrier acted by the stress created the tunneling piezoresistive effects, as well. The relative variety
∆R/R0 of the channel resistance for the TFTs is proportional to the relative change of channel carrier
mobility, computed as19
∆R ∆µp
∝ , (2)
R0 µp
where R0 is the channel equivalent resistance of the TFTs without pressure P, ∆R is the variation of
the channel equivalent resistance, µp is the channel carrier mobility at zero pressure, and ∆µp is the
variation of the channel carrier mobility.
Under the resulting longitudinal and transverse stresses, it is possible to increase or decrease
the channel resistances, attributing to the different locations of nano-polysilicon TFTs placed on the
square silicon diaphragm. If the absolute value of the relative variation for the TFTs’ channel resis-
tance is the same as that of the others, VOUT of Wheatstone bridge would be given by Equation (3):
∆R
VOUT = VOUT1 − VOUT2 = · VDD, (3)
R0
According to the Equation (3), the sensitivity of a pressure sensor is defined as:
VOUT 1 ∆R 1
S= = · · VDD ∝ 2 . (4)
P P R0 h
It can be seen that the sensitivity of the pressure sensor is proportional to not only the bridge sup-
ply voltage (VDD) but also the relative variation ∆R/R0 of the channel resistance, where the internal
scattering and the tunneling effects of the carriers are associated with the channel resistance.
127216-4 Zhao et al. AIP Advances 5, 127216 (2015)

FIG. 3. Main fabrication steps of the pressure sensors based on nano-polysilicon TFTs.

III. SENSOR FABRICATION

The pressure sensors based on the TFTs were fabricated via CMOS technology and MEMS tech-
nology. The fabrication process is as following (as shown in Fig. 3): (a) A double-polished n-type
< 100 > orientation silicon wafer with a high resistivity (ρ > 3000 Ω·cm) was used as the substrate
of the sensor. (b) The SiO2 layers with the thickness of 380 nm were grown on both sides of the silicon
substrate by means of thermal oxidation, then patterned by the first lithography to form active region
windows. (c) Nano-polysilicon thin films with thickness of 61 nm were deposited by LPCVD system
at 620 ◦C, and then injected with boron ions by means of an ion implantation machine to form p-type
implantation, where the energy and dose of the implanted ions were 40 keV and 1.0 × 1015 cm−2,
respectively. (d) Through the second lithography, the nano-polysilicon thin films were patterned.
(e) Utilizing the plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) to grow a SiO2 layer (with
thickness of 60 nm) to form gate oxide, after that, the polysilicon (with thickness of 520 nm) was
grown and doped by diffusion phosphorus. (f) By the third lithography, the polysilicon was patterned
to form a polysilicon gate, then injected with boron ions to form source and drain, where the energy
and dose of the implanted ions were 40 keV and 6.0 × 1015 cm−2, respectively. (g) The SiO2 layer
grown by the forth lithography was patterned to form contact holes. Al was evaporated on the top
side of the substrate by vacuum evaporating, and patterned by the fifth lithography to create electrode
geometry. Then Al was evaporated on the bottom of substrate, and patterned by the sixth lithography
to etch windows of the square silicon diaphragm. (h) The backside of the silicon substrate was etched
by inductively coupled plasma (ICP) to form the diaphragm structure with the thicknesses of 55 µm
and 35 µm. (i) Bonding the fabricated chip and the borosilicate glass with hole in its center by anodic
bonding technology. The sensor chips have an overall dimension of 5.0 mm × 5.0 mm × 500 µm as
observed in Fig. 4.

FIG. 4. Chip photographs of the pressure sensor based on nano-polysilicon TFTs: (a) the front side, (b) the back side,
(c) packaging.
127216-5 Zhao et al. AIP Advances 5, 127216 (2015)

FIG. 5. The XRD spectra of the as-deposited thin films and the thin films annealed at different annealing temperature.

IV. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

A. Nano-polysilicon thin films

Through using Cu-Kα radiation at room temperature, the crystal structures of the nano-
polysilicon thin films were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD) on a PANalytical X’Pert Pro
diffractometer nano thin films attachment. The surface morphology of the thin films was observed
by a Veeco Dimension icon atomic force microscope (AFM) with contact mode. For comparison,
the XRD patterns of the thin films at different annealing temperature and the XRD spectrum of
the as-deposited thin film are shown in Fig. 5. It is observed that all of the patterns exhibit three
corresponding diffraction peaks formed at 28.4◦ ± 0.2◦, 47.3◦ ± 0.2◦ and 56.1◦ ± 0.2◦ on < 111 >,
< 220 > and < 311 > orientations of Si. The intensity of diffraction peaks increase as the anneal-
ing temperature increases, meaning that there are a large number of grains with smaller sizes to
form. Figure 6 shows the two-dimensional AFM images of the as-deposited and the as-annealed
nano-polysilicon thin films.

B. Characterization
At the temperature 20 ◦C and the relative humidity of 15 %RH, the pressure sensing charac-
teristics of the fabricated pressure sensors were repeatedly measured for three pressure cycles via a
pressure calibration system (Fluke 719 100G), multimeter (Agilent 34401A) and DC power supply

FIG. 6. The two-dimensional AFM images of nano-polysilicon thin films: (a) as-deposited, (b) annealing temperature is
800 ◦C, (c) annealing temperature is 1000 ◦C.
127216-6 Zhao et al. AIP Advances 5, 127216 (2015)

FIG. 7. Input-output characteristics curves of the pressure sensors: (a) pressure sensor based on nano-polysilicon TFTs,
(b) diffused pressure sensor.

(Gwinstek PSW Multi-Range), where the supply voltage ranged from 1.0 V to 5.0 V with a step
voltage of 1.0 V. The external pressure P acted on the sensor with 55 µm-thick square diaphragm
ranged from 0 to 300 kPa with a pressure step of 20 kPa, and the external pressure P for the sensor
with 35 µm-thick square diaphragm ranged from 0 to 100 kPa with a pressure step of 10 kPa. The
input-output characteristic curves of the sensors at an external pressure P are shown in Fig. 7(a), in
which the length-width ratio of channel is 320 µm/80 µm, and the thickness of square diaphragm is
55 µm for the sensor (P55-1 type). For comparison, under the same circumstance of design parameters
and fabrication process the characteristic curves of the diffused silicon piezoresistive pressure sensors
are shown in Fig. 7(b). The full scale (300 kPa) output voltage and sensitivity of the proposed sensor
at a supply voltage of 5.0 V are 304 mV and 1.02 mV/kPa, respectively. The full scale (300 kPa)
output voltage and the sensitivity of pressure sensor, adopting the diffused silicon as piezoresistances,
are 233 mV and 0.77 mV/kPa, respectively. The experimental results show that the output voltages of
Wheatstone bridge are proportional to the supply voltages at a constant ratio of channel length-width.
With respect to the diffused silicon piezoresistive pressure sensor, the sensitivity improved about 32 %
for the proposed sensor indicates that the nano-polysilicon thin film compared with diffused silicon
possesses a higher gauge factor.
Figure 8 shows the input-output characteristic curves of proposed sensor with the channel length-
width ratio of 160 µm/80 µm. As shown in Fig. 8(a) (P55-2 type), the full scale (300 kPa) output
voltage and the sensitivity of the proposed sensor with the 55 µm-thick silicon diaphragm are 337 mV
and 1.09 mV/kPa at VDD = 5.0 V, respectively. Comparing with the proposed sensor as shown in
Fig. 7(a), the proposed sensor with channel length-width ratio of 160 µm/80 µm exhibits a higher
sensitivity, attributing to the different locations of nano-polysilicon TFTs placed on the square silicon

FIG. 8. Input-output characteristics curves of the pressure sensor based on nano-polysilicon TFTs with the channel
length-width radio of 160 µm/80 µm: (a) the thickness of silicon diaphragm is 55 µm, (b) the thickness of silicon diaphragm
is 35 µm.
127216-7 Zhao et al. AIP Advances 5, 127216 (2015)

FIG. 9. Temperature characteristics curves of the pressure sensor based on nano-polysilicon TFTs with the channel
length-width radio of 160 µm/80 µm: (a) the thickness of silicon diaphragm is 55 µm, (b) the thickness of silicon diaphragm
is 35 µm.

TABLE I. Performance characteristics of the pressure sensor (P35-2 type) based on nano-polysilicon TFTs under 5.0 V
supply.

Parameter (Units) Value

Temperature (◦C) −40 20 140

Sensitivity (mV/kPa) 2.92 2.56 2.08
Full scale output voltage (mV) 304.90 266.69 218.41
Zero output voltage (mV) 12.61 10.37 10.87

Linearity (%/F.S.) 0.79 1.20 1.05

Repeatability (%/F.S.) 2.14 0.29 0.43
Hysteresis (%/F.S.) 2.91 0.13 0.18

Temperature coefficient of zero point (%/◦C) −0.095

Temperature coefficient of sensitivity (%/◦C) −0.179

diaphragm. Due to the particular structures of nano-polysilicon TFTs, the channel resistances with
the channel length-width ratio of 320 µm/80 µm are distributed in the both sides of zero stress line on
the square silicon diaphragm acted by an external pressure, resulting in the decrease of the sensitivity.
As the thickness of silicon diaphragm is reduced as shown in Fig. 8(b), the full scale (100 kPa)
output voltage and the sensitivity of the proposed sensor (P35-2 type) with 35 µm-thick silicon dia-
phragm are 267 mV and 2.58 mV/kPa, respectively. The analysis results represent that the sensitivity
of pressure sensor with 35 µm-thick silicon diaphragm is about 2.37 times higher than that of the
pressure sensors with the 55 µm-thick silicon diaphragm. According to the Equation (4), the sensi-
tivity of proposed sensor is inversely proportional to the thickness of silicon diaphragm in the second
power at a constant ratio of channel length-width.
Through the high-low temperature experiment performed by experimental box (GDJS-100G),
the temperature characteristics of the proposed pressure sensor is studied in the temperature range of
-40 ◦C -140 ◦C. Figure 9(a) and 9(b) show the temperature characteristics curves of P55-2 and P35-2
sensors, which shows that the sensor has a negative temperature coefficient of the sensitivity. The
characteristic parameters of P35-2 pressure sensor with the 35 µm-thick silicon diaphragm are listed
in Table I, where the temperature coefficients of zero point and the sensitivity are -0.095 %/◦C (full
scale) and -0.179 %/◦C (full scale), respectively. The experimental results show that the supposed
sensor has much higher sensitivity and superior temperature characteristics.

V. CONCLUSION
In summary, a pressure sensors based on nano-polysilicon TFTs was fabricated and packaged on
the < 100 > orientation silicon wafer with a high resistivity using the CMOS technology and MEMS
127216-8 Zhao et al. AIP Advances 5, 127216 (2015)

technology. Comparing with the diffused silicon piezoresistive pressure sensor in the same way of the
experimental conditions and design parameters, the proposed pressure sensor can achieve a higher
sensitivity. Since the internally scattering and tunneling effect of carriers caused by the elastic defor-
mation of channel layers for the TFTs, the piezoresistive characteristics of the proposed sensor are
enhanced. When VDD = 5.0 V, the channel length-width ratio of the nano-polysilicon TFT and the
thickness of silicon diaphragm are 160 µm/80 µm and 35 µm, the full scale (100 kPa) output voltage,
sensitivity and linearity of the sensor are 267 mV, 2.58 mV/kPa and 1.20 %F.S., respectively. Thus,
the sensitivity of the pressure sensors can be significantly improved adopting the channel resistors of
the TFTs as piezoresistors, and it is very important for the wide application of nano-polysilicon thin
films in the field of micro pressure sensor.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This work is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No.
61471159), the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (Grant No. 2013M530163), the Heilongjiang
Province Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. F201433), the Special Funds for Science
and Technology Innovation Talents of Harbin in China (Grant No. 2014RFQXJ007), the Mod-
ern Sensor Technology Innovation Team for College of Heilongjiang Province in China (Grant
No.2012TD007).
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