Metal MEMS Membrane Based Electric Field Sensor

E. Tahmasebian[1], C. Shafai[1], T. Chen[1]
[1]University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, MB, Canada
Publié en 2013

A MEMS based electrostatic field sensor is presented which uses capacitive interrogation of an electrostatic force deflected microstructure. The deflection of the sensor is calculated both by simulation and theoretical model and it has been shown that the results of the simulations have acceptable values compared to the theoretical ones. Simulation models have also been designed to solve the resonating issue of the membrane for measuring the AC electric fields. It has been shown that by adding perforations to the surface of the membrane, it is possible to reduce the mass of membrane and still have similar electrostatic force on membrane. Therefore, it is possible to reduce the damping due to air resistance in membrane movement when measuring AC fields.