MEMS Electrometer With Femtoampere Resolution for Aerosol Particulate Measurements

Electrostatic charge measurements are at the base of chemical, physical and biological experiments. In this paper, we present an electrometer based on the vibrating capacitance of a microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) resonator for the detection of small currents from ionized particles in an aeros...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:IEEE sensors journal 2013-08, Vol.13 (8), p.2993-3000
Main Authors: Jaramillo, Gerardo, Buffa, Cesare, Mo Li, Brechtel, Fred J., Langfelder, Giacomo, Horsley, David A.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
aerosols
current measurement
Electrometer
leakage currents
MEMS resonator
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Summary:Electrostatic charge measurements are at the base of chemical, physical and biological experiments. In this paper, we present an electrometer based on the vibrating capacitance of a microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) resonator for the detection of small currents from ionized particles in an aerosol particle detection system. We use a porous sensing-electrode coupled to a MEMS resonating electrometer. Operating at resonance, charge is collected on the MEMS electrometer and modulated at the resonant frequency and its harmonics. Induced voltage is read with a low-leakage very high-input impedance feedback amplifier. Because of the specific readout technique, a switched-reset is used to prevent charge saturation. Sensitivity improvements are achieved by modifying the low noise-readout amplifier by reducing input-referred noise and parasitic capacitance. The electrometer achieves a noise floor
ISSN:1530-437X
1558-1748
DOI:10.1109/JSEN.2013.2266335