Abstract
Presented here is a slotted-quad-beam structure sensor for the measurement of friction in micro bearings. Stress concentration slots are incorporated into a conventional quad-beam structure to improve the sensitivity of force measurements. The performance comparison between the quad-beam structure sensor and the slotted-quad-beam structure sensor are performed by theoretical modeling and finite element (FE) analysis. A hollow stainless steel probe is attached to the mesa of the sensor chip by a tailor-made organic glass fixture. Concerning the overload protection of the fragile beams, a glass wafer is bonded onto the bottom of sensor chip to limit the displacement of the mesa. The calibration of the packaged device is experimentally performed by a tri-dimensional positioning stage, a precision piezoelectric ceramic and an electronic analytical balance, which indicates its favorable sensitivity and overload protection. To verify the potential of the proposed sensor being applied in micro friction measurement, a measurement platform is established. The output of the sensor reflects the friction of bearing resulting from dry friction and solid lubrication. The results accord with the theoretical modeling and demonstrate that the sensor has the potential application in measuring the micro friction force under stable stage in MEMS machines.
Highlights
Micro bearings are very important components for rotating micro-electro-mechanical system (MEMS)devices like turbines, generators, and engines [1]
This paper aims at providing a sensing configuration to promote the sensor performance in measurement sensitivity, measurement range and overload protection for MEMS bearing friction measurement systems
The sensor chip and printed circuit board (PCB) were aligned by the grooves in the organic glass fixture and bonded by adhesive; after that, the probe was put into the hole and adhered onto the central mesa of the sensor chip; the electrical connection between the sensor and instruments was conducted with the golden leads by the wire bonder after necessary thermal solidification
Summary
Micro bearings are very important components for rotating micro-electro-mechanical system (MEMS). For the tests proposed here, a high precision measurement platform is established based on torque balance principle. In this system the friction is transformed into an detected force parameter by a force arm, and the sensor to measure the force signal becomes the key device in the system. Lu et al reported a piezoresistive-sensor-based micro-force-sensing probe that features good sensitivity and large measurement range [14,15]. This paper aims at providing a sensing configuration to promote the sensor performance in measurement sensitivity, measurement range and overload protection for MEMS bearing friction measurement systems. A practical friction measurement is performed to verify the feasibility of utilizing the developed sensor in the measurement system
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