Design and testing of a MEMS acoustic emission sensor system

David W. Greve; Irving J. Oppenheim; Amelia P. Wright; Wei Wu

doi:10.1117/12.775777

8 April 2008 Design and testing of a MEMS acoustic emission sensor system

David W. Greve, Irving J. Oppenheim, Amelia P. Wright, Wei Wu

Proceedings Volume 6932, Sensors and Smart Structures Technologies for Civil, Mechanical, and Aerospace Systems 2008; 69321P (2008) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.775777
Event: SPIE Smart Structures and Materials + Nondestructive Evaluation and Health Monitoring, 2008, San Diego, California, United States

Abstract

We present four new findings pertaining to MEMS sensors for acoustic emission detection. Our sensors are resonant-type capacitive transducers, operating with a frequency between 100 kHz and 500 kHz, fabricated in the PolyMUMPS process. The sensitivity of a resonant transducer is related to the sharpness of its resonance, measured by the quality factor Q, and operating in a coarse vacuum will increase Q. We describe a practical laboratory method for sealing and evacuating our MEMS sensor, and present measurements showing Q in the evacuated packages to be 2.4 to 3.6 times greater than under atmospheric pressure. We also describe our theoretical analysis of noise sources in the electromechanical behavior of a resonant, capacitive-type transducer sensitive to out-of-plane motion, with particular interest in noise resulting from mechanical excitation of the moving plate by air molecule impact. We report on a new transducer design to sense out-of-plane motion featuring a moving plate constructed as an open grill rather than as a plate perforated by etch holes. Characterization measurements show the open grill design to have a higher Q than a comparable perforated plate transducer. Finally, we report on another novel transducer designed to sense in-plane motion. The sensor is a comb finger capacitive transducer, and theoretical predications predict the in-plane sensor to have a much higher Q than the out-of-plane sensors. We show experimental measurements confirming these design characteristics, and we show results from pencil lead break experiments.

Citation Download Citation

David W. Greve, Irving J. Oppenheim, Amelia P. Wright, and Wei Wu "Design and testing of a MEMS acoustic emission sensor system", Proc. SPIE 6932, Sensors and Smart Structures Technologies for Civil, Mechanical, and Aerospace Systems 2008, 69321P (8 April 2008); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.775777

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