Piezoresistive behavior of amorphous carbon films for high performance MEMS force sensors

In this study, microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) force sensors based on H-free amorphous carbon (a-C) films with controlled piezoresistive behavior were fabricated by a facile magnetron sputtering technique. By adjusting the substrate bias voltage from 0 V (floating state) to –350 V, the gauge f...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Applied physics letters 2019-06, Vol.114 (25)
Main Authors: Ma, Xin, Guo, Peng, Tong, Xiaoshan, Zhao, Yulong, Zhang, Qi, Ke, Peiling, Wang, Aiying
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Applied physics
Carbon
Dependence
Magnetron sputtering
Microelectromechanical systems
Resistors
Sensors
Substrates
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Summary:In this study, microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) force sensors based on H-free amorphous carbon (a-C) films with controlled piezoresistive behavior were fabricated by a facile magnetron sputtering technique. By adjusting the substrate bias voltage from 0 V (floating state) to –350 V, the gauge factor (GF) of the a-C film was modulated in the range of 1.4–12.1. Interestingly, the GF showed a strong dependence on the sp2 content and the sp2 cluster size of the film, which was consistent with the theory of thick film resistors. In addition, the sensitivity of a-C based MEMS force sensors reached 80.7 μV/V/N in the force range of 0–1.16 N, with a nonlinearity of approximately 1.3% full scale and good repeatability in over 5000 test cycles.
ISSN:0003-6951
1077-3118
DOI:10.1063/1.5096225