Piezoresistive Sensors Development Using Monolithic CMOS MEMS Technology

Abstract

This paper presents the development of a monolithic CMOS-MEMS platform under the iDesign and SemeMEMS projects with the aim of jointly providing an open access “one-stop-shop” design and prototyping facility for integrated CMOS-MEMS. This work addresses the implementation of a 3-axis accelerometer and a pressure sensor using Semefab’s in-house 2-poly 1-metal CMOS process on a 380/4/15 μm SOI wafer; the membrane and the proof mass being micromachined using double-sided Deep Reactive Ion Etching (DRIE). This monolithic approach promises, in high volume production and using low complexity processes, a dramatic cost reduction over hybrid sensors. Furthermore, the embedded signal conditioning and the low-noise level in polysilicon gauges enables high performance to be achieved by implementing dedicated on-chip amplification and filtering circuitry.

Keywords

• Monolithic piezoresistive
• CMOS MEMS
• Inertial
• Pressure
• Sensors