Fabrication and Characteristics of an nc-Sic-Si Heterojunction MOSFETs Pressure Sensor.docVIP

Sensors 2012, 12, 6369-6379; doi:10.3390/s120506369 OPEN ACCESS sensors ISSN 1424-8220 /journal/sensors Article Fabrication and Characteristics of an nc-Si/c-Si Heterojunction MOSFETs Pressure Sensor Xiaofeng Zhao, Dianzhong Wen * and Gang Li Key Laboratory of Electronics Engineering, College of Heilongjiang Province, Major Laboratories of Integrated Circuits, Heilongjiang University, Harbin 150080, China; E-Mails: zxf80310@126.com (X.Z.); lig8-78@ (G.L.) * Author to whom correspondence should be addressed; E-Mail: wendianzhong@126.com; Tel.: +86-451-8660-8413. Received: 12 March 2012; in revised form: 2 May 2012 / Accepted: 3 May 2012 / Published: 14 May 2012 Abstract: A novel nc-Si/c-Si heterojunction MOSFETs pressure sensor is proposed in this paper, with four p-MOSFETs with nc-Si/c-Si heterojunction as source and drain. The four p-MOSFETs are designed and fabricated on a square silicon membrane by CMOS process and MEMS technology where channel resistances of the four nc-Si/c-Si heterojunction MOSFETs form a Wheatstone bridge. When the additional pressure is P, the nc-Si/c-Si heterojunction MOSFETs pressure sensor can measure this additional pressure P. The experimental results show that when the supply voltage is 3 V, length-width (L:W) ratio is 2:1, and the silicon membrane thickness is 75 μm, the full scale output voltage of the pressure sensor is 15.50 mV at room temperature, and pressure sensitivity is 0.097 mV/kPa. When the supply voltage and L:W ratio are the same as the above, and the silicon membrane thickness is 45 μm, the full scale output voltage is 43.05 mV, and pressure sensitivity is 2.153 mV/kPa. Therefore, the sensor has higher sensitivity and good temperature characteristics compared to the traditional piezoresistive pressure sensor. Keywords: nc-Si/c-Si heterojunction; MOSFETs pressure sensor; MEMS technology; CMOS process  Sensors 2012, 12 6370