• Journal of information and communication convergence engineering
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.232-236
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• 2017

A digital vacuum pressure sensor is designed, fabricated, and characterized using a packaged MEMS analog Pirani gauge. The packaged MEMS analog Pirani gauge requires a current source to heat up a heater in the Pirani gauge. To investigate the feasibility of digitization for the analog Pirani gauge, its implementation is performed with a zero-temperature coefficient current source and microcontroller that are commercially available. The measurement results using the digital vacuum pressure sensor showed that its operating range is 0.05-760 Torr, which is the same as the measurement results of the packaged MEMS analog pressure sensor. The results confirm that it is feasible to integrate the analog Pirani gauge with a commercially available current source and microcontroller. The successful hybrid integration of the analog Pirani gauge and digital circuits is an encouraging result for monolithic integration with a precision current source and ADCs in the state of CMOS dies.

• ETRI Journal
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• v.38 no.4
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• pp.685-694
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• 2016

A surface micromachined piezoresistive pressure sensor with a novel internal substrate vacuum cavity was developed. The proposed internal substrate vacuum cavity is formed by selectively etching the silicon substrate under the sensing diaphragm. For the proposed cavity, a new fabrication process including a cavity side-wall formation, dry isotropic cavity etching, and cavity vacuum sealing was developed that is fully CMOS-compatible, low in cost, and reliable. The sensitivity of the fabricated pressure sensors is 2.80 mV/V/bar and 3.46 mV/V/bar for a rectangular and circular diaphragm, respectively, and the linearity is 0.39% and 0.16% for these two diaphragms. The temperature coefficient of the resistances of the polysilicon piezoresistor is 0.003% to 0.005% per degree of Celsius according to the sensor design. The temperature coefficient of the offset voltage at 1 atm is 0.0019 mV and 0.0051 mV per degree of Celsius for a rectangular and circular diaphragm, respectively. The measurement results demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed pressure sensor as a highly sensitive circuit-integrated pressure sensor.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2014.02a
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• pp.229.2-229.2
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• 2014

Graphene, an allotrope of carbon, is a two-dimensional material having a unique electro-mechanical property that shows significant change of the electrical conductance under the applied strain. In addition of the extraordinary mechanical strength [1], graphene becomes a prospective candidate for pressure sensor technology [2]. However, very few investigations have been carried out to demonstrate characteristics of graphene sensor as a device form. In this study, we demonstrate a pressure sensor using graphene double layer as an active channel to generate electrical signal as the response of the applied vertical pressure. For formation of the active channel in the pressure sensor, two single graphene layers which are grown on Cu foil (25 um thickness) by the plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) are sequentially transformed to the poly-di-methyl-siloxane (PDMS) substrate. Dry and wet transfer methods are individually employed for formation of the double layer graphene. This sensor geometry results a switching characteristic which shows ~900% conductivity change in response to the application of pulsed pressure of 5 kPa whose on and off duration is 3 sec. Additionally, the functional reliability of the sensor confirms consistent behavior with a 200-cycle test.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2014.02a
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• pp.229.1-229.1
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• 2014

Tactile sensors have widely been researched in the areas of electronics, robotic system and medical tools for extending to the form of bio inspired devices that generate feeling of touch mimicking those of humans. Recent efforts in adapting the tactile sensor have included the use of novel materials with both scalability and high sensitivity [1]. Graphene, a 2-D allotrope of carbon, is a prospective candidate for sensor technology, having strong mechanical properties [2] and flexibility, including recovery from mechanical stress. In addition, its truly 2-D nature allows the formation of continuous films that are intrinsically useful for realizing sensing functions. However, very few investigations have been carrier out to investigate sensing characteristics as a device form with the graphene subjected to strain/stress and pressure effects. In this study, we present a sensor of vertical forces based on single-layer graphene, with a working range that corresponds to the pressure of a gentle touch that can be perceived by humans. In spite of the low gauge factor that arises from the intrinsic electromechanical character of single-layer graphene, we achieve a resistance variation of about 30% in response to an applied vertical pressure of 5 kPa by introducing a pressure-amplifying structure in the sensor. In addition, we demonstrate a method to enhance the sensitivity of the sensor by applying resistive single-layer graphene.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.18 no.5
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• pp.396-400
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• 2005

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have been well known as electron emitters for field emission applications like FEDs. In this work, we propose as new application a vacuum sensor using CNTs and discuss its current-voltage characteristics as a function of vacuum pressure. The proposed sensor, based on electrical discharge theories in air gap well-known as Townsend theory and as Paschen's law, works by figuring out the variation of the dark current and the initial breakdown voltage depending on the vacuum pressure of air which can ionize through collisions with the electrons accelerated by high electric field.

• Vacuum Magazine
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• v.4 no.3
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• pp.6-11
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• 2017

The tactile sensor of the future robot is becoming a necessity as a sensory organ which can communicate with the person most directly. Recently, the Nature-inspired technology has provided a new direction for the development of these tactile sensors. Here, we review three different nature-inspired tactile sensory system; high sensitivity pressure sensor inspired by beetle wings, highly sensitive strain sensor inspired by the spider's sensory organs, Tactile sensor inspired by human fingertip. These nature-inspired tactile sensors are expected to provide a breakthrough that not only can sensitively measure the pressure, but also delicately recognize the softness and texture of the material just like human.

• Journal of the Korean Vacuum Society
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• v.19 no.5
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• pp.319-325
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• 2010

Pressure vacuum measurement technique using acoustic impedance change of ultrasonic transducers was studied. The sensor has been setup using two air-coupled ultrasonic transducers, one as a transmitter and the other as a receiver, and put it into vacuum chamber and measured pressure versus ultrasonic amplitude. The result confirms that the standard deviations of four repeat measurements were from 0.0093 to 0.3325 at pressure 6.66 kPa to 202.65 kPa(about two atmosphere), and the relative percents were 0.018% and 0.164% at pressure 133.32 kPa and 202.65 kPa, respectively.

• Tribology and Lubricants
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• v.35 no.6
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• pp.389-395
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• 2019

In various industries, thin film coatings are used to improve friction and wear characteristics. Various types of tribotesters are used to evaluate the friction and wear characteristics of such thin film coatings. In this study, we fabricated a micro-tribotester and Tribo-scanning electron microscopy (SEM) to compare the friction and wear characteristics of copper (Cu) coatings under an atmospheric pressure and a vacuum condition, respectively. The reliability of the different types of tribotesters was evaluated by performing calibrations for the sensor to measure the friction forces and normal loads. Using the two different types of devices, the friction and wear tests are conducted at the same experimental conditions excluding environment conditions such as the atmospheric pressure and vacuum condition. The friction coefficient at the vacuum condition is lower than at the atmospheric pressure. This difference in friction characteristics is due to the fact that wear phenomena occur differently according to the atmospheric pressure and vacuum condition. At the atmospheric pressure, the abrasive wear is the main wear mechanism. At the vacuum condition, the adhesive wear is the main wear mechanism. The reason for the difference in the wear mechanism of the Cu coating at the atmospheric pressure and the vacuum condition is that the oxidation phenomenon, which does not appear at the vacuum condition, occurs at the atmospheric pressure; therefore, the characteristics of the Cu coating change accordingly.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Telematics and Electronics D
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• v.35D no.5
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• pp.63-68
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• 1998

The absolute pressure sensor using SDB wafer has been fabricated. the structure of the sensor consists of two wheatstone bridges and a diaphragm. One of the two wheatstone bridges is located on the edge of diaphragm, and the other is located on the center of diaphragm. The diaphragm cavity is sealted in vacuum (~10$^{5}$ Torr) to reduce the effect of temperature due to the vapor in the cavity on the sensitivity of pressure sensor. This is the minor method of temperature compensation method. In this experiment the main compensation method is to use the difference of the two bridge offset voltages. The drift of offset voltage with temperature is reduced by using this method so that temperature charcteristics is improved. In this method the temperature effect in the range of 22~100.deg. C was compensated over 80%.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.29 no.5
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• pp.354-359
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• 2020

The high vacuum hermetic sealing technique ensures excellent performance of MEMS resonators. For the high vacuum hermetic sealing, the customization of anodic bonding equipment was conducted for the glass/Si/glass triple-stack anodic bonding process. Figure 1 presents the schematic of the MEMS resonator with triple-stack high-vacuum anodic bonding. The anodic bonding process for vacuum sealing was performed with the chamber pressure lower than 5 × 10^-6 mbar, the piston pressure of 5 kN, and the applied voltage was 1 kV. The process temperature during anodic bonding was 400 ℃. To maintain the vacuum condition of the glass cavity, a getter material, such as a titanium thin film, was deposited. The getter materials was active at the 400 ℃ during the anodic bonding process. To read out the electrical signals from the Si resonator, a vertical feed-through was applied by using through glass via (TGV) which is formed by sandblasting technique of cap glass wafer. The aluminum electrodes was conformally deposited on the via-hole structure of cap glass. The TGV process provides reliable electrical interconnection between Si resonator and aluminum electrodes on the cap glass without leakage or electrical disconnection through the TGV. The fabricated MEMS resonator with proposed vacuum packaging using three-layer anodic bonding process has resonance frequency and quality factor of about 16 kHz and more than 40,000, respectively.