Modeling and Fabrication of Micro FET Pressure Sensor with Circuits

摘要

This paper presents the simulation, fabrication and characterization of a micro FET (field effect transistor) pressure sensor with readout circuits. The pressure sensor includes 16 sensing cells in parallel. Each sensing cell that is circular shape is composed of an MOS (metal oxide semiconductor) and a suspended membrane, which the suspended membrane is the movable gate of the MOS. The CoventorWare is used to simulate the behaviors of the pressure sensor, and the HSPICE is employed to evaluate the characteristics of the circuits. The pressure sensor integrated with circuits is manufactured using the commercial 0.35 μm CMOS (complementary metal oxide semiconductor) process and a post-process. In order to obtain the suspended membranes, the pressure sensor requires a post-CMOS process. The post-process adopts etchants to etch the sacrificial layers in the pressure sensors to release the suspended membranes, and then the etch holes in the pressure sensor are sealed by LPCVD (low pressure chemical vapor deposition) parylene. The pressure sensor produces a change in current when applying a pressure to the sensing cells. The circuits are utilized to convert the current variation of the pressure sensor into the voltage output. Experimental results show that the pressure sensor has a sensitivity of 0.032 mV/kPa in the pressure range of 0-500 kPa.