Mathematical Modelling and Comparative Study of Elliptical and Circular Capacitive Pressure Microsensor

Abstract

A lot of work on clamped circular, square and rectangular shaped capacitive pressure sensor has been carried out. However, to the best of our knowledge, no elaborate work has been performed on mathematical formulation and simulation of clamped elliptical shaped capacitive pressure sensor in literature. This paper describes the mathematical modelling and simulation of normal mode clamped elliptical shaped capacitive pressure sensor. The study of various performance parameters like maximum diaphragm deflection, capacitance variation, mechanical sensitivity, capacitive sensitivity and non-linearity is also carried out for operating pressure range of 0kPa - 18 kPa. For circular capacitive pressure sensor, the operating pressure range is modified according to physical dimensions i.e. thickness and radius of diaphragm, separation gap between plates and maximum deflection. For same overlapping area between plates (10000π mm2), the comparison of elliptical shapes of different eccentricities with circular shape diaphragm is carried out. The thickness of diaphragm is taken as2 μm and separation gap is 1 μm in all the designs which are used in this work. In this comparative study, it is observed that elliptical shaped capacitive pressure sensors have better linearity than circular diaphragm pressure sensor.