Piezoresistive Cantilever Beam For Force Sensing in Two Dimensions
Piezoresistive Cantilever Beam For Force Sensing in Two Dimensions
Piezoresistive Cantilever Beam For Force Sensing in Two Dimensions
I. INTRODUCTION
Manuscript received June 6, 2006; revised September 7, 2006. This work was
supported in part by the Vietnamese Ministry of Education and Training. The
associate editor coordinating the review of this paper and approving it for publication was Prof. Paul Regtien.
The authors are with the Electronic Components, Technology and Materials
Laboratory, Delft Institute for Micro-Electronics and Submicrontechnology,
Delft University of Technology, 2628 CT Delft, The Netherlands (e-mail:
t.chuduc@tudelft.nl; j.f.creemer@tudelft.nl; sarro@dimes.tudelft.nl).
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this paper are available online
at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/JSEN.2006.886992
limitation of capacitive force sensors is the low resolution. Furthermore, the capacitive structures require complete isolation
between two electrodes, so normally SOI wafers are employed.
Alternatively, trench isolation can be used [7]. However, it is difficult to control the etching area to obtain a completely isolated
structure. Moreover, the capacitive method requires a complicated fabrication processes and electronic circuits.
A two-dimensional piezoelectric force sensor is presented in
[8]. It consists of two perpendicular pieces of polyvinylidene
fluoride (PVDF) material. This structure is symmetric in the vertical and lateral dimensions with a resolution and sensitivity in
the N range. However, the PVDF cannot be patterned optically. The two pieces have to be glued perpendicularly to each
other, resulting in a rather large structure of the sensor. With
this approach, the sensor cannot be miniaturized and it is not
compatible with the IC technology. The piezoelectric method
also requires complicated electronic circuits for processing the
signal.
Cantilevers based on the optical force measurement are often
used in atomic force microscopy (AFM) and high-resolution
measurement. This method is very powerful for measuring
small displacements but needs high accuracy in the optical
alignment and adjustment. The cantilever surface must be
reflective and larger than the laser beam spot. It is not simple
to create a lateral and multidimensional force sensor with an
optical method. Moreover, the required lasers are relatively
large, so it is impossible to miniaturize the entire force-sensing
system to the micrometer size range.
Piezoresistive transducers translate a force into a change in
the value of a resistor. They are widely employed as sensing
elements in pressure sensors, accelerometers, and AFM cantilevers [9]. Recently, developments in piezoresistive cantilever
fabrication lead to submicrometer cantilevers with a resolution
of pN [10] and even fN [11]. Most of the previously developed
high-sensitivity force sensors employ SOI wafers [10][12] and
vertical structures.
Sidewall-doping technique is normally employed in the lateral force-sensing [13][15]. An independent detection of vertical and lateral forces sensor is reported in [15]. Oblique implantation, a rather special technique, is needed in order to produce resistors on the vertical sidewalls of the cantilever.
This paper presents a novel two-dimensional nano-Newton
force piezoresistive cantilever providing nano-Newton sensitivity, a wide range measurement force, and the possibility to
be combined with handling tools. Instead of using sidewall
implantation, two separately sensing piezoresistors are located
on both sides of the cantilever. By using two switches to
change the Wheatstone bridge configuration, the piezoresistive
cantilever is capable of detecting both the lateral and vertical
DUC et al.: PIEZORESISTIVE CANTILEVER BEAM FOR FORCE SENSING IN TWO DIMENSIONS
97
(3)
where
and
are the stiffness of the cantilever in the lateral
and vertical direction, respectively.
Theoretically, the stiffness of the cantilever at its end is given
by [16], [17]
Fig. 1. Schematic drawing of the two-dimensional piezoresistive force-sensing
cantilever with geometric symbols and orientations used.
(4)
bending. So this force-sensing cantilever can detect the applied
forces in both parallel and perpendicular direction to the wafer
surface. The cantilever is made on regular silicon wafers with a
fabrication process compatible with CMOS technology.
II. TWO-DIMENSIONAL FORCE SENSING CANTILEVER DESIGN
In Fig. 1, a schematic drawing of the two-dimensional
piezoresistive force sensing cantilever is shown. The four
piezoresistors are located on the surface of the structure. The
piezoresistors are aligned along the [110] direction in the (001)
crystal plane of a silicon wafer. The resistor pair located on the
cantilever are stress sensing resistors (the resistance changes
when the cantilever is deflected). Two other resistors are outside
the cantilever. They are not subjected to stress and therefore
they are used for common-mode signal compensation in a
Wheatstone bridge arrangement.
When a force is applied to the tip of the cantilever, the cantilever bends. On the -plane, perpendicular to the longitudinal
-axis of the cantilever, the applied force can be resolved into
is the lateral and
is the vertical compotwo components:
and , we can evaluate
nent (see Fig. 1). By monitoring
both amplitude and direction of the applied force.
is applied to the tip of the cantilever,
When a lateral force
develops in the resistors. This stress can
a longitudinal stress
be calculated from classical beam theory [16], [17]. At one point
in the resistor, the stress is given by
(1)
where and are the coordinates as defined in Fig. 1, is the
momentum of inertia of the cantilever along the -axis, and
is the length of the cantilever.
is applied to the tip of the cantilever,
When a vertical force
develops in the resistors, given
a different longitudinal stress
by
(2)
(5)
,
are the
where is the density of the surrounding fluid,
,
are the corresponding
radial resonant frequencies, and
quality factors of the fundamental modes of the cantilever in the
is the imaginary
fluid in the lateral and vertical direction.
.
only
component of the hydrodynamic function
, where
depends on the Reynolds number
is the viscosity of the surrounding fluid.
is complicated,
so the reader is referred to [19] for an analytical expression.
In [20], still another method is presented for determining the
stiffness of the cantilever. It is based on measuring the change
of resonant frequency caused by the addition of known masses
to the tip of the cantilever.
The stress is detected by measuring the change in resistance
value of the piezoresistors. The resistors in the sensor are at the
surface of the beam. As expressed in (1) and (2), the stress in the
piezoresistors is not uniform but varies linearly along the longitudinal direction of the resistors. The electrical resistivity within
a point is changed by the local stress due to the piezoresistive
effect. This can be described as [17]
(6)
is the zero-stress resistivity and resistivity
where and
change of the piezoresistor, respectively,
is the distance
from the fixed-end of cantilever to the investigated point,
and
are the longitudinal and the transverse piezoresistive
and
are the longitudinal and the transcoefficients, and
verse stresses, respectively. In the case of a piezoresistive
force-sensing cantilever, the deflection of the cantilever is much
98
TABLE I
ROOM-TEMPERATURE FIRST-ORDER PIEZORESISTIVE COEFFICIENTS FOR
p-TYPE SILICON
(7)
where
and
are the electrical resistivity of the inner
and outer half of the sensing piezoresistors (see Fig. 3), is the
is the distance from
cross-sectional area of the resistors, and
the fixed end of the cantilever to the tip of the piezoresistors (see
Fig. 1).
The longitudinal piezoresistive coefficient of the resistor that
is aligned along the [110] direction in the (001) plane is given
by [17]
Fig. 2. Schematic configuration. (a) Lateral force sensing mode. (b) Vertical
force sensing mode. (c) Layout of the Wheatstone bridge with the switches.
(8)
where
,
, and
are three independent coefficients of
the first-order piezoresistive tensor. For the piezoresistive coefficients of -type silicon, a range of values can be found in
the literature; see Table I. In this paper, we assume the values
of room-temperature first-order piezoresistive coefficients reported in [21].
Fig. 2 shows the configuration used for the lateral and vertical
force sensing. The change from lateral to vertical sensitivity and
vice versa is performed by using two electronic switches as depicted in Fig. 2(c).
Fig. 3. Scanning electron microscope images of the two-dimensional piezoresistive force sensing cantilever.
A. Lateral Configuration
When a lateral force, parallel to the wafer surface, is applied
to the tip of the cantilever, the differential change of resistance
and
. The resistance change
occurs on the two resistors
of the piezoresistor depends on the applied force and is obtained
by combining (1), (6), and (7)
(10)
(9)
are the distance from the lateral neutral plane
where ,
( -plane) to the inner half and outer half of the sensing
piezoresistor as indicated in Fig. 3,
is the lateral applied
force to the tip of the cantilever, and
is the
where
is the bias voltage and
is the resistance of the
zero-stressed piezoresistor. The output is expected to change
with 0.08 V when the applied force changes 1 nN, which yields
a sensitivity of 84 V/N, as reported in Table II. For large signal
DUC et al.: PIEZORESISTIVE CANTILEVER BEAM FOR FORCE SENSING IN TWO DIMENSIONS
99
TABLE II
PARAMETERS OF 2-D PIEZORESISTIVE FORCE-SENSING CANTILEVER
(12)
The output is expected to change with 0.39 V when the applied force changes 1 nN, which yields a sensitivity of 395 V/N
, the approxi(see Table II). For a large signal
mation of the (12) is valid within about 7%.
This configuration is not symmetrical because the position
and
is changed from the symmetrical
of resistances
lateral configuration [see Fig. 2(b)]. This results in some crosssensitivity. Assuming that when a lateral force is applied to the
and
cantilever, the resistance value of the sensing resistor
is
and
, the output voltage of the
vertical configuration is given by
(13)
(14)
and
are the measured output voltage of the
where
Wheatstone bridge when the deflections
and
are applied
to the tip of the cantilever.
D. Electrical Noise in Piezoresistive Cantilever
The thermal and 1 noises are two dominant noise sources
of the piezoresistive cantilever [25], [26]. The thermal noise
arises from the random motion of mobile charge carriers in resistive electrical materials. The thermal noise is dependent only on
the resistance and the temperature . It is white noise with
the spectral density independent of the frequency. The voltage
power noise density for the resistance (units [V Hz]) is given
by
(15)
(11)
where
100
At low frequencies, all resistors suffer from conductance fluctuations, usually called 1 noise because the noise power density (units [V Hz]) decreases as one over the frequency. The
physical cause of 1 noise is usually not fully understood and
still an active area of research. However, the empirical model of
1 noise, described in [27], is applicable to the piezoresistors.
The 1 voltage noise power spectral density (units [V Hz])
of a homogeneous resistor is dependent on the total number of
charge carriers in the resistor according to
(16)
where
is the voltage across a resistor with a total number of
carriers , is the frequency, and is a dimensionless parameter that is between 3.2 10 and 5.7 10 in single crystal
silicon [26], is the charge carrier concentration, and , , are
the resistor length, width, and thickness, respectively.
The total noise of a Wheatstone bridge is a sum of the noise of
four piezoresistors. Considering there is no correlation between
the piezoresistors, the total voltage noise power spectral density is the sum of the voltage noise power spectral density of the
piezoresistors. For the total noise voltage, the spectrum needs to
. Combe integrated over the bandwidth of interest
bining (15) and (16) yields
Fig. 4. Schematic view of the fabrication process. (a) Epitaxial growth. (b)
Piezoresistors definition. (c) Insulation and metallization. (d) Cantilever release.
(17)
The electrical minimum detectable force (MDF) of the cantilever depends on the minimum detectable signal which is determined by the noise of the cantilever. The MDF corresponds
to the calculated noise of the piezoresistors, expressed in (17),
can be estimated by
MDF
MDF
(18)
Fig. 5. Schematic drawing of AFM setup used for the resonant frequency measurement.
III. FABRICATION
The force sensor consists of a p-type silicon cantilever on
which p-type silicon piezoresistors are integrated. Fig. 3 shows
the realized sensing cantilever that is 10 m thick, 500 m
long, and 26 m wide. Other parameters related to the geometry of fabricated sensor are shown in Table II. The fabrication process is based on the DIMES-03 bipolar process [28],
[29]. An additional 500-nm-thick p-type epitaxial layer with a
cm is grown to form the piezoresisresistivity of 3.75 10
tors. By using epitaxial growth, a uniformly doped layer with
an accurate thickness within 23% of the nominal value can
be obtained, resulting in resistors of a well-defined size. The
1- m-wide 80- m-long piezoresistors are defined using reactive ion etching (RIE). A wet anisotropic etching step from the
backside is combined with a front-side RIE etching to release
the cantilevers. Fig. 4 shows the schematic view of the main
steps of the fabrication process.
DUC et al.: PIEZORESISTIVE CANTILEVER BEAM FOR FORCE SENSING IN TWO DIMENSIONS
101
Fig. 6. Needle used to bend the cantilever is fasten to an xyz -manipulator. (a)
Picture of the measurement setup and (b) schematic drawing with an image of
the bent cantilever.
A. Electronic Characteristics
The currentvoltage characteristic of the fabricated piezoresistors at room temperature is shown in Fig. 7. The characteristic
is linear within 16% over the voltage range of 20 V, meaning that
the contacts and resistors behave as expected. The zero-stress resistance value of the resistors at room temperature is reported in
Table II.
Fig. 8 shows the offset voltage of one Wheatstone bridge
when the cantilever is free of applied force, indicating an offset
voltage of about 1 mV when the bias is 1 V. The offset is mostly
due to some variations in the fabrication process. This voltage
determines the detection limit and the resolution of the sensor in
this setup. However, the offset voltage can be reduced by using
an electronic autozero amplifier.
B. Resonant Frequencies and Stiffness of the Cantilever
In Figs. 9 and 10, the resonant frequencies of the cantilever in
lateral and vertical mode, respectively, are shown. The response
102
Fig. 11. Output voltage due to the deflection of the tip of cantilever for the
lateral configuration.
Fig. 12. Output voltage due to the deflection of the tip of the cantilever for the
vertical configuration.
Fig. 10. Vertical deflection of the cantilever beam as a function of AFM vibration frequency. The deflection is expressed as a function of the differential
photocurrent of the position-sensitive device of the AFM. The insets shows the
response over the entire frequency range.
not only for the common-mode signals but also for the signal
caused by the vertical applied forces. In fact, when operating in
the lateral configuration, the cross-sensitivity is 0.8%.
Fig. 15 shows the output signal for the case of the vertical
configuration. The sensitivity derived from these curves is 540
V/N (see Table II). The curve is linear within 4% over the applied force range of 134 N. The cross-sensitivity of the vertical
configuration is 27%.
These experimental results meet the above mentioned theoretical value (see Table II) within 20%, indicating that the epitaxial growth and the etching processes behave as expected. The
vertical sensitivity is higher than the lateral signal due to the difference between the width and the thickness of the cantilever,
and also due to the distance from the corresponding neutral
plane to the piezoresistors. The optimal structure geometry for
two-dimensional piezoresistive force-sensing cantilever is the
one with a thickness equal to the width.
DUC et al.: PIEZORESISTIVE CANTILEVER BEAM FOR FORCE SENSING IN TWO DIMENSIONS
103
Fig. 15. Output voltage due to the applied force for the vertical configuration.
The force range in the lateral direction is larger than that in vertical direction
because the beam width is larger than its thickness, and the deflections are equal.
VI. CONCLUSION
A high-sensitivity multidimensional force sensor is the
missing part of many micromanipulation and microsurgery
systems. The presented sensing cantilever can fill this gap.
The piezoresistive cantilever is based on single crystal silicon
instead of SOI wafers. This structure allows monitoring of
both vertical and lateral applied forces by using two electronic
switches. A sensitivity and minimum detectable force up to
100 V/N and 21 nN for the lateral and up to 540 V/N and 4
nN for the vertical configuration are calculated and measured.
Our force sensor can potentially be used in microrobotics,
microassembly, minimally invasive surgery, and biological
assays where force feedback is needed.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
Fig. 14. Output voltage due to the applied force for the lateral configuration.
The force range in the lateral direction is larger than that in vertical direction
because the beam width is larger than its thickness, and the deflections are equal.
The authors would like to acknowledge the DIMES-IC Processing group for technical support. They would like to thank
P. J. F. Swart of the Electronic Components, Technology and
Materials group for his assistance with the electronic measurements. They would like to thank W. J. Venstra of the Advanced
Mechatronics Group and P. J. Trimp and G. de Graaf of the
Electronic Instrumentation Laboratory for their help with the
mechanical measurements. Thanks are due to C. C. G. Visser of
the Electronic Components, Technology and Materials Group
and Dr. M. Tian of NTI Europe B.V. for the many discussions
and advice on use of the AFM.
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