• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2007.05a
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• pp.1708-1711
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• 2007

This paper presents high cycle fatigue properties of an Al-3%Ti thin film, used in a RF (radio-frequency) MEMS switch for a mobile phone and also describes new test method for obtaining static and dynamic characteristics of thin film and reliability evaluation method on MEMS device with thin film developed by authors. Durability should be ensured for such devices under cycling load. Therefore, with the proposed specimen and test procedure, tensile and fatigue tests were performed to obtain mechanical and fatigue properties. The specimen was made with dimensions of $1000{\mu}m$ long, $1.0{\mu}m$ thickness, and 3 kinds of width, 50, 100 and $150{\mu}m$. High cycle fatigue tests for each width were also performed, from which the fatigue strength coefficient and the fatigue strength exponent were found to be 193MPa and .0.02319 for $50{\mu}m$, 181MPa and -0.02001 for $100{\mu}m$, and 164MPa and -0.01322 for $150{\mu}m$, respectively. We found that the narrower specimen is, the longer fatigue life of Al-3%Ti is and the wider specimen is, the more susceptible to stress level fatigue life of Al-3%Ti was.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.14 no.6
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• pp.374-380
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• 2005

Vibration sensors have a wide scope of applications in the field of monitoring systems that needs to perceive an undesirable physical vibration before a critical failure occurs in a system, and then costly unplanned repairs can be avoided. The conventional vibration sensors developed so far have many disadvantages, such as complex manufacturing process, bulkiness, high cost, less reliability and so on. This paper reports a simple-structured vibration sensor, which has been developed using a commercialized conductive ball and silicon bulk-micromachining technology. The sensor consists of a conductive ball placed in $600{\mu}m$-deep micromachined silicon groove, in which Au thin film has been patterned using a shadow mask technique. Prior to the formation of the Au thin film, the sharp convex corner was rounded for smooth meatl deposition on the non-planar surface at the edge of the groove. The measurement results of the fabricated vibration sensor demonstrate a stable response characteristic to low-frequency vibration range ($1{\sim}30{\;}Hz$).

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.308-313
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• 1999

This paper will present an anisotropic etching in TMAH technique used in the fabrication of three-dimensional magnetic field vector sensor based on angled Hall plate structure. This sensor design relies on simultaneously detecting all magnetic field vector components using Hall plates that are imbedded into the silicon [111] sloped-surface of bulk micromachined cavity by the anisotropic etching of [100] silicon. The fabricated Hall elements has relatively improved sensitivity compare to convensional Hall elements for three-dimensional magnetic field sensing. The product sensitivity of 547V/AT at the supply current of 1.0mA was achived. The corresponding limit in the detection of magnrtic field is 0.07G that calculated by measured power spectral density(PSD) in magnetic sensor output.

• Proceedings of the IEEK Conference
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• 2005.11a
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• pp.857-860
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• 2005

We reported 94 GHz, low conversion loss, and high isolation single balanced active-gate mixer based on 70 nm gate length InGaAs/InAlAs metamorphic high electron mobility transistors (MHEMTs). This mixer showed that the conversion loss and isolation characteristics were 2.5 ${\sim}$ 2.8 dB and under -30 dB, respectively, in the range of 93.65 ${\sim}$ 94.25 GHz. The low conversion loss of the mixer is mainly attributed to the high-performance of the MHEMTs exhibiting a maximum drain current density of 607 mA/mm, a extrinsic transconductance of 1015 mS/mm, a current gain cutoff frequency ($f_t$) of 330 GHz, and a maximum oscillation frequency ($f_{max}$) of 425 GHz. High isolation characteristics are due to hybrid ring coupler which adopted dielectric-supported air-gapped microstrip line (DAML) structure using surface micromachined technology. To our knowledge, these results are the best performance demonstrated from 94 GHz single balanced mixer utilizing GaAs-based HEMTs in terms of conversion loss as well as isolation characteristics.

• Proceedings of the Materials Research Society of Korea Conference
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• 2003.03a
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• pp.131-131
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• 2003

Surface micromachined uncooled IR detector with the optimized VOx bolometric layer was fabricated based on sandwich structure of the V$_2$O$_{5}$V/V$_2$O$_{5}$. In order to improve the detectivity of the IR detector, we optimized a few factors in the viewpoint of bolometric material. Vanadium oxide thin film is a promising material for uncooled microbolometers due to its high temperature coefficient of resistance at room temperature. It is, however, very difficult to deposit vanadium oxide thin films having high temperature coefficient of resistance and low resistance because of process limits in microbolometer fabrication. In order to increase the responsivity and decrease noise, we increase TCR of bolometric material and decrease room temperature resistance based on the sandwich structure of the V$_2$O$_{5}$V/V$_2$O$_{5}$ by conventional sputter. By oxygen diffusion through low temperature annealing of V$_2$O$_{5}$V/V$_2$O$_{5}$ in oxygen ambient, various mixed phase vanadium oxide was formed and we obtained TCR in range of-1.2 ~-2.6%/$^{\circ}C$ at room temperature resistance of 5~100k$\Omega$.mega$.

• Journal of Electrical Engineering and information Science
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.239-244
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• 1998

Piezoelectric pressure sensors and pyroelectric infrared detectors based on ZnO thin film have been integrated with GaAs metal-semiconductor field effect transistor (MESFET) amplifiers. Surface micromachining techniques have been applied in a GaAs MESFET process to form both microsensors and electronic circuits. The on-chip integration of microsensors such as pressure sensors and infrared detectors with GaAs integrated circuits is attractive because of the higher operating temperature up to 200 oC for GaAs devices compared to 125 oC for silicon devices and radiation hardness for infrared imaging applications. The microsensors incorporate a 1${\mu}$m-thick sputtered ZnO capacitor supported by a 2${\mu}$m-thick aluminum membrane formed on a semi-insulating GaAs substrate. The piezoelectric pressure sensor of an area 80${\times}$80 ${\mu}$m2 designed for use as a miniature microphone exhibits 2.99${\mu}$V/${\mu}$ bar sensitivity at 400Hz. The voltage responsivity and the detectivity of a single infrared detector of an area 80${\times}$80 $\mu\textrm{m}$2 is 700 V/W and 6${\times}$108cm$.$ Hz/W at 10Hz respectively, and the time constant of the sensor with the amplifying circuit is 53 ms. Circuits using 4${\mu}$m-gate GaAs MESFETs are fabricated in planar, direct ion-implanted process. The measured transconductance of a 4${\mu}$m-gate GaAs MESFET is 25.6 mS/mm and 12.4 mS/mm at 27 oC and 200oC, respectively. A differential amplifier whose voltage gain in 33.7 dB using 4${\mu}$m gate GaAs MESFETs is fabricated for high selectivity to the physical variable being sensed.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.6 no.3
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• pp.225-238
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• 2010

We report on the development of a new technology for the fabrication of Micro-Electro-Mechanical-System (MEMS) strain sensors to realize a novel type of crackmeter for health monitoring of ageing civil infrastructures. The fabrication of micromachined silicon MEMS sensors based on a Silicon On Insulator (SOI) technology, designed according to a Double Ended Tuning Fork (DETF) geometry is presented, using a novel process which includes a gap narrowing procedure suitable to fabricate sensors with low motional resistance. In order to employ these sensors for crack monitoring, techniques suited for bonding the MEMS sensors on a steel surface ensuring good strain transfer from steel to silicon and a packaging technique for the bonded sensors are proposed, conceived for realizing a low-power crackmeter for ageing infrastructure monitoring. Moreover, the design of a possible crackmeter geometry suited for detection of crack contraction and expansion with a resolution of $10{\mu}m$ and very low power consumption requirements (potentially suitable for wireless operation) is presented. In these sensors, the small crackmeter range for the first field use is related to long-term observation on existing cracks in underground tunnel test sections.