Determination of the piezoresistivity of microcrystalline silicon-germanium and application to a pressure sensor

Author

Lenci, S. ; Gonzalez, P. ; De Meyer, K. ; Van Hoof, R. ; Frederickx, D. ; Witvrouw, A.

Author_Institution

Dipt. di lng. dell´´Inf., Pisa

fYear

2008

fDate

13-17 Jan. 2008

Firstpage

427

Lastpage

430

Abstract

This paper reports for the first time the experimentally obtained piezoresistive coefficients of microcrystalline silicon-germanium (mucSiGe), which is proposed as a new structural material for piezoresistive micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS). We measure the resistance variation of several piezoresistors under a uniform and uniaxial stress provided by a four point bending (4 PB) fixture. The stress values are determined both by theory and from finite elements (FE) simulations. FE simulations are done as well to investigate the potential of using mucSiGe for a piezoresistive pressure sensor application.

Keywords

Ge-Si alloys; finite element analysis; microsensors; piezoresistive devices; pressure sensors; resistors; MEMS; SiGe; finite element simulations; four point bending fixture; microcrystalline silicon-germanium; piezoresistive microelectromechanical systems; piezoresistors; pressure sensor; Electrical resistance measurement; Finite element methods; Fixtures; Germanium silicon alloys; Microelectromechanical systems; Micromechanical devices; Piezoresistance; Piezoresistive devices; Silicon germanium; Stress measurement;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Micro Electro Mechanical Systems, 2008. MEMS 2008. IEEE 21st International Conference on

Conference_Location

Tucson, AZ

ISSN

1084-6999

Print_ISBN

978-1-4244-1792-6

Electronic_ISBN

1084-6999

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/MEMSYS.2008.4443684

Filename

4443684