Application and Optimization of Stiffness Abruption Structures for Pressure Sensors with High Sensitivity and Anti-Overload Ability

Tingzhong Xu; Dejiang Lu; Libo Zhao; Zhuangde Jiang; Hongyan Wang; Xin Guo; Zhikang Li; Xiangyang Zhou; Yulong Zhao

doi:10.3390/s17091965

Application and Optimization of Stiffness Abruption Structures for Pressure Sensors with High Sensitivity and Anti-Overload Ability

Sensors (Basel). 2017 Aug 26;17(9):1965. doi: 10.3390/s17091965.

Authors

Tingzhong Xu^{1

2}, Dejiang Lu³, Libo Zhao⁴, Zhuangde Jiang⁵, Hongyan Wang⁶, Xin Guo⁷, Zhikang Li⁸, Xiangyang Zhou⁹, Yulong Zhao¹⁰

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory for Manufacturing Systems Engineering, International Joint Laboratory for Micro/Nano Manufacturing and Measurement Technologies, Collaborative Innovation Center of SuzhouNano Science and Technology, School of Mechanical Engineering, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an 710049, China. tingzhongxu@163.com.
² School of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia. tingzhongxu@163.com.
³ State Key Laboratory for Manufacturing Systems Engineering, International Joint Laboratory for Micro/Nano Manufacturing and Measurement Technologies, Collaborative Innovation Center of SuzhouNano Science and Technology, School of Mechanical Engineering, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an 710049, China. djlu@mail.xjtu.edu.cn.
⁴ State Key Laboratory for Manufacturing Systems Engineering, International Joint Laboratory for Micro/Nano Manufacturing and Measurement Technologies, Collaborative Innovation Center of SuzhouNano Science and Technology, School of Mechanical Engineering, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an 710049, China. libozhao@mail.xjtu.edu.cn.
⁵ State Key Laboratory for Manufacturing Systems Engineering, International Joint Laboratory for Micro/Nano Manufacturing and Measurement Technologies, Collaborative Innovation Center of SuzhouNano Science and Technology, School of Mechanical Engineering, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an 710049, China. zdjiang@mail.xjtu.edu.cn.
⁶ Shaanxi Institute of Metrology Science, Xi'an 710065, China. xinnya@126.com.
⁷ State Key Laboratory for Manufacturing Systems Engineering, International Joint Laboratory for Micro/Nano Manufacturing and Measurement Technologies, Collaborative Innovation Center of SuzhouNano Science and Technology, School of Mechanical Engineering, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an 710049, China. aguoxinz@126.com.
⁸ State Key Laboratory for Manufacturing Systems Engineering, International Joint Laboratory for Micro/Nano Manufacturing and Measurement Technologies, Collaborative Innovation Center of SuzhouNano Science and Technology, School of Mechanical Engineering, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an 710049, China. zhikangli@xjtu.edu.cn.
⁹ School of Instrumentation Science & Optoelectronics Engineering, Beihang University, Beijing 100191, China. xyzhou@buaa.edu.cn.
¹⁰ State Key Laboratory for Manufacturing Systems Engineering, International Joint Laboratory for Micro/Nano Manufacturing and Measurement Technologies, Collaborative Innovation Center of SuzhouNano Science and Technology, School of Mechanical Engineering, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an 710049, China. zhaoyulong@mail.xjtu.edu.cn.

Abstract

The influence of diaphragm bending stiffness distribution on the stress concentration characteristics of a pressure sensing chip had been analyzed and discussed systematically. According to the analysis, a novel peninsula-island-based diaphragm structure was presented and applied to two differenet diaphragm shapes as sensing chips for pressure sensors. By well-designed bending stiffness distribution of the diaphragm, the elastic potential energy induced by diaphragm deformation was concentrated above the gap position, which remarkably increased the sensitivity of the sensing chip. An optimization method and the distribution pattern of the peninsula-island based diaphragm structure were also discussed. Two kinds of sensing chips combined with the peninsula-island structures distributing along the side edge and diagonal directions of rectangular diaphragm were fabricated and analyzed. By bonding the sensing chips with anti-overload glass bases, these two sensing chips were demonstrated by testing to achieve not only high sensitivity, but also good anti-overload ability. The experimental results showed that the proposed structures had the potential to measure ultra-low absolute pressures with high sensitivity and good anti-overload ability in an atmospheric environment.

Keywords: bending stiffness distribution; high anti-overload ability; high sensitivity; peninsula-island structured diaphragm; stress concentration region.