A11..a Microcantilever-Based Gas Flow Sensor For Flow
A11..a Microcantilever-Based Gas Flow Sensor For Flow
A11..a Microcantilever-Based Gas Flow Sensor For Flow
Si Si
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;; 2.5 - - Airflow angle =135'
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§ 2 ./ - - Airflow angle =180'
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10 15 20 25 30 35
Figure 5 SEM image of gas flow sensor. Figure 7 The relationship between the airflow velocity and the total
90· resistance variation when airflow direction was 135·, and 180·.
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Figure 6 The relative position between the initial air flow direction and the
sensor. Airflow angle (deg)
cooling steps performed before etching. This phenomenon Figure 8 The relationship between the airflow angle and the resistance
causes an initial beam deformation position which assists the variation when airflow velocity was (a)15 ms· 1 [0], (b)20 ms· 1 [~], (c)25
flow rate sensing function. To increase the reliability of the ms· 1 [0] and (d) 30 ms· 1 [0].
micro-cantilever, a small thiclmess of silicon was retained to
act as an understructure. Fig. 5 presents a scanning electron
microscope (SEM) image of a typical freestanding structure B. Flow Direction
fabricated in this study. For the measurement of the flow direction, a strong
dependence of the measurement was found on the
III. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
geometrical setup of the sensor axes. It is necessary to assure
A systematic investigation was conducted into the the cantilevers precise location with the angle 90°. As the
performance of the fabricated micro gas flow sensors. The airflow pass through the gas flow sensor from 180 0, the
characterization of the sensors was carried out with a rotary largest resistance variation was caused by the downwind
table (LC-PR60, TanLian E-O Co., Ltd., Taiwan) in a wind cantilever deformation, and the least resistance variation was
tunnel, and the relative position between the air flow direction caused by upwind cantilever deformation. The resistance
and the sensor is shown in Fig. 6. The variation in the sensor variation ofcantilever beams that perpendicular to the airflow
resistance as the airflow passed over the cantilever was direction are almost equal to zero. The measured values at
measured using an LCR meter (WK4230, Wayne Kerr different flow rate, 30, 25, 20 and 15 mis, are shown in Fig. 8.
Electronics Ltd., Taiwan). For reference purposes, a Pitot
tube flow meter was also used to measure the velocity of the IV. CONCLUSIONS
airflow. The current study develops a MEMS-based gas flow sensor
featuring a free-standing micro-cantilever structure. In the
A. Flow Rate
sensing operation, the air flow velocity is detected by
For the of measurement of the flow rate in the wind tunnel, measuring the change in resistance of the piezoelectric
the relationship between the sum of the absolute value of resistors deposited on the cantilever beams as the beam
resistance variation in all the four piezoresistors on the beams deforms under the effect of the passing airflow and the
and flow rate is shown in Fig. 7. It shows that as the airflow airflow direction can be obtained by comparing the resistance
direction was at 180 ° or 135 ° direction, the sum of the variation difference between the upstream and downstream
absolute values of the resistance variation was equal and it cantilever beams to evaluate the airflow angle.
just depended on the flow rate.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT