Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
9
Polymer MEMS Sensors
V. S e e n a
1,2,
*, Prasenjith Ray
1
, Prashanthi Kovur
1,3
, Manoj Kandpal
1
and V. Ramgopal Rao
1
1
Centre of Excellence in Nanoelectronics, Department of Electrical Engineering,
Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, India
2
Department of Avionics Engineering, Indian Institute of Space Science and
Technology, h iruvananthapuram, India
3
Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering, University of Alberta,
Edmonton, Canada
Abstract
h e evolution of today's sensors based on the micro/nano electromechanical sys-
tems (MEMS/NEMS) happened due to the revolutions in the well-established
microelectronics technology. h ough silicon is considered to be the primary
material in microelectronics and hence in MEMS, many classes of MEMS devices
have been realized using other potential materials like polymers. A class of MEMS
sensors named nanomechanical cantilevers i nd applications in the realization of
many physical, chemical, and biological sensors. Improved sensitivity, reliability
and also cost ef ectiveness of such sensor platforms have been achieved by the use
of polymer materials, along with the employment of smart and compatible trans-
duction techniques. h is chapter summarizes our research work on development
of polymer MEMS cantilever sensor platforms with four novel integrated electrical
transduction mechanisms. In these techniques, the mechanical parameters of the
polymer (SU-8) MEMS sensors can be translated into electrical output using (1)
SU-8/CB nanocomposite (a piezoresistive approach), (2)integrated organic i eld
ef ect transistor of CantiFET (a strain sensitive transistor approach), (3) integrated
Al doped ZnO TFT (a strain sensitive thin i lm transistor approach) or (4) SU-8/
ZnO nanocomposite ( a piezoelectric approach).
