Design and modeling of a novel microsensor to detect magnetic fields in two orthogonal directions

Abstract

In this paper, we present the design and modeling of the electrical–mechanical behavior of a novel microsensor to detect magnetic fields in two orthogonal directions (2D). This microsensor uses a simple silicon resonant structure and a Wheatstone bridge with small p-type piezoresistors (10 × 4 × 1 μm) to improve the microsensor resolution. The resonant structure has two double-clamped silicon beams (1000 × 28 × 5 μm) and an aluminum loop (1 μm thickness). The microsensor design allows important advantages such as small size, compact structure, easy operation and signal processing, and high resolution. In addition, the microsensor design is suitable to fabricate using silicon on insulator (SOI) wafers in a standard bulk micromachining process. An analytical model is developed to predict the first bending resonant frequency of the microsensor structure using Macaulay and Rayleigh methods, as well as the Euler–Bernoulli beam theory. Air and intrinsic damping sources of the microsensor structure are considered for its electrical–mechanical response. The mechanical behavior of the microsensor is studied using finite element models (FEMs). For 10 mA of root mean square (RMS) excitation current and 10 Pa air pressure, this microsensor has a linear electrical response, a fundamental bending resonant frequency of 52,163 Hz, and a high theoretical resolution of 160 pT.