MEMS Sensors and Actuators: Design, Fabrication and Applications

A special issue of Micromachines (ISSN 2072-666X). This special issue belongs to the section "A:Physics".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 January 2025 | Viewed by 14430

Special Issue Editors

University of Michigan–Shanghai Jiao Tong University Joint Institute, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China
Interests: micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS); sensors and actuators
National Key Laboratory of Science and Technology on Micro/Nano Fabrication, Department of Micro/Nano Electronics, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China
Interests: flexible piezoeletric microelectromechanical system (flexble piezo-MEMS); piezoelectric dynamics; hydroelectrodynamics; mechanical energy harvesting and sensing; self-powered systems for healthcare monitoring; artificial Intelligence & Internet
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Guest Editor
Hochschule für Technik und Wirtschaft Berlin, University of Applied Sciences, Treskowallee 8, 10318 Berlin, Germany
Interests: microsystems; piezoresistive sensor; sensor for harsh environments; SOI and SiC-based sensor; accelerometers; gas sensor; design and simulation of microsystems; graphene; material research; graphene-based sensors; biosensors; printed sensors; 2D sensors; technologies
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) are miniature, multi-functional smart microsystems consisting of sensors, actuators and microelectronics, typically made by micromachining technologies. Sensors are devices that can measure a parameter of interest, typically non-electrical, and generate an electrical signal that can be processed by microprocessors. On the other hand, actuators are devices that convert one signal into some other form of signal that can delivered to an environment of interest. Any application which requires interfacing between an electronic system and the non-electronic external world will require sensors and actuators. Since the last two decades, MEMS sensors and actuators have been finding new applications as most systems are required to become smaller, lower power and portable, and this trend is keeping gaining speed.

A few key application areas include: (1) low-power, hand-held smart electronics, (2) micromachined accelerometers for automobiles, (3) high-definition portable display systems based on micro mirrors, (4) micromechanically manipulated optical systems on a chip, (5) biochip for DNA analysis and cell assay, (6) implantable and wearable bioMEMS, (7) portable, hand-held mass spectrometry, (8) desktop atomic force microscopy, (9) fully-integrated, low-power MEMS-based wireless transceivers, etc.

The objective of this Special Issue is to present the most recent significant progress in the field of MEMS sensors and actuators. All authors from academia and industry are kindly invited to share their research innovations in this field. We particularly welcome review articles and original research papers aiming to the related key issues of basic research, devices and technology development, and practical application of MEMS sensors and actuators.

This Special Issue invites but is not limited to contributions in the following topics:

  • Novel transducer concepts;
  • New design, modeling and simulation techniques of MEMS;
  • New fabrication technology of complex micromechanical structures;
  • Reliability of sensors and actuators in harsh environment;
  • Advanced calibration or control of nonlinear actuators;
  • Flexible and soft microstructured sensors and actuators;
  • Practical application of MEMS sensors and actuators in new scenarios;
  • Review articles on MEMS sensors and actuators.

Dr. Lei Shao
Dr. Zhiran Yi
Prof. Dr. Ha Duong Ngo
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • MEMS;
  • Sensors;
  • Actuators;
  • Transducers;
  • Microsystems;
  • Microfabrication.

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Published Papers (8 papers)

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Research

15 pages, 14093 KiB  
Article
Integrating Multiple Hierarchical Parameters to Achieve the Self-Compensation of Scale Factor in a Micro-Electromechanical System Gyroscope
by Rui Zhou, Rang Cui, Daren An, Chong Shen, Yu Bai and Huiliang Cao
Micromachines 2024, 15(11), 1385; https://doi.org/10.3390/mi15111385 - 16 Nov 2024
Viewed by 422
Abstract
The scale factor of thermal sensitivity serves as a crucial performance metric for micro-electromechanical system (MEMS) gyroscopes, and is commonly employed to assess the temperature stability of inertial sensors. To improve the temperature stability of the scale factor of MEMS gyroscopes, a self-compensation [...] Read more.
The scale factor of thermal sensitivity serves as a crucial performance metric for micro-electromechanical system (MEMS) gyroscopes, and is commonly employed to assess the temperature stability of inertial sensors. To improve the temperature stability of the scale factor of MEMS gyroscopes, a self-compensation method is proposed. This is achieved by integrating the primary and secondary relevant parameters of the scale factor using the partial least squares regression (PLSR) algorithm. In this paper, a scale factor prediction model is presented. The model indicates that the resonant frequency and demodulation phase angle are the primary correlation terms of the scale factor, while the drive control voltage and quadrature feedback voltage are the secondary correlation terms of the scale factor. By employing a weighted fusion of correlated terms through PLSR, the scale factor for temperature sensitivity is markedly enhanced by leveraging the predicted results to compensate for the output. The results indicate that the maximum error of the predicted scale factor is 0.124% within the temperature range of −40 °C to 60 °C, and the temperature sensitivity of the scale factor decreases from 6180 ppm/°C to 9.39 ppm/°C. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue MEMS Sensors and Actuators: Design, Fabrication and Applications)
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15 pages, 4488 KiB  
Article
Multi-Frame Vibration MEMS Gyroscope Temperature Compensation Based on Combined GWO-VMD-TCN-LSTM Algorithm
by Ao Li, Ke Cui, Daren An, Xiaoyi Wang and Huiliang Cao
Micromachines 2024, 15(11), 1379; https://doi.org/10.3390/mi15111379 - 15 Nov 2024
Viewed by 436
Abstract
This paper presents a temperature compensation model for the Multi-Frame Vibration MEMS Gyroscope (DMFVMG) based on Grey Wolf Optimization Variational Mode Decomposition (GWO-VMD) for denoising and a combination of the Temporal Convolutional Network (TCN) and the Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) network for temperature [...] Read more.
This paper presents a temperature compensation model for the Multi-Frame Vibration MEMS Gyroscope (DMFVMG) based on Grey Wolf Optimization Variational Mode Decomposition (GWO-VMD) for denoising and a combination of the Temporal Convolutional Network (TCN) and the Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) network for temperature drift prediction. Initially, the gyroscope output signal was denoised using GWO-VMD, retaining the useful signal components and eliminating noise. Subsequently, the denoised signal was utilized to predict temperature drift using the TCN-LSTM model. The experimental results demonstrate that the compensation model significantly enhanced the gyroscope’s performance across various temperatures, reducing the rate random wander from 102.929°/h/√Hz to 17.6903°/h/√Hz and the bias instability from 63.70°/h to 1.38°/h, with reductions of 82.81% and 97.83%, respectively. This study validates the effectiveness and superiority of the proposed temperature compensation model. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue MEMS Sensors and Actuators: Design, Fabrication and Applications)
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22 pages, 1364 KiB  
Article
Signal Denoising Method Based on EEMD and SSA Processing for MEMS Vector Hydrophones
by Peng Wang, Jie Dong, Lifu Wang and Shuhui Qiao
Micromachines 2024, 15(10), 1183; https://doi.org/10.3390/mi15101183 - 24 Sep 2024
Viewed by 3376
Abstract
The vector hydrophone is playing a more and more prominent role in underwater acoustic engineering, and it is a research hotspot in many countries; however, it also has some shortcomings. For the mixed problem involving received signals in micro-electromechanical system (MEMS) vector hydrophones [...] Read more.
The vector hydrophone is playing a more and more prominent role in underwater acoustic engineering, and it is a research hotspot in many countries; however, it also has some shortcomings. For the mixed problem involving received signals in micro-electromechanical system (MEMS) vector hydrophones in the presence of a large amount of external environment noise, noise and drift inevitably occur. The distortion phenomenon makes further signal detection and recognition difficult. In this study, a new method for denoising MEMS vector hydrophones by combining ensemble empirical mode decomposition (EEMD) and singular spectrum analysis (SSA) is proposed to improve the utilization of received signals. First, the main frequency of the noise signal is transformed using a Fourier transform. Then, the noise signal is decomposed by EEMD to obtain the intrinsic mode function (IMF) component. The frequency of each IMF component in the center further determines that the IMF component belongs to the noise IMF component, invalid IMF component, or pure IMF component. Then, there are pure IMF reserved components, removing noisy IMF components and invalid IMF components. Finally, the desalinated IMF reconstructs the signal through SSA to obtain the denoised signal, which realizes the denoising processing of the signal, extracting the useful signal and removing the drift. The role of SSA is to effectively separate the trend noise and the periodic vibration noise. Compared to EEMD and SSA separately, the proposed EEMD-SSA algorithm has a better denoising effect and can achieve the removal of drift. Following that, EEMD-SSA is used to process the data measured by Fenhe. The experiment is carried out by the North University of China. The simulation and lake test results show that the proposed EEMD-SSA has certain practical research value. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue MEMS Sensors and Actuators: Design, Fabrication and Applications)
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14 pages, 4775 KiB  
Article
A Micromachined Silicon-on-Glass Accelerometer with an Optimized Comb Finger Gap Arrangement
by Jiacheng Li, Rui Feng, Xiaoyi Wang, Huiliang Cao, Keru Gong and Huikai Xie
Micromachines 2024, 15(9), 1173; https://doi.org/10.3390/mi15091173 - 22 Sep 2024
Viewed by 848
Abstract
This paper reports the design, fabrication, and characterization of a MEMS capacitive accelerometer with an asymmetrical comb finger arrangement. By optimizing the ratio of the gaps of a rotor finger to its two adjacent stator fingers, the sensitivity of the accelerometer is maximized [...] Read more.
This paper reports the design, fabrication, and characterization of a MEMS capacitive accelerometer with an asymmetrical comb finger arrangement. By optimizing the ratio of the gaps of a rotor finger to its two adjacent stator fingers, the sensitivity of the accelerometer is maximized for the same comb finger area. With the fingers’ length, width, and depth at 120 μm, 4 μm, and 45 μm, respectively, the optimized finger gap ratio is 2.5. The area of the proof mass is 750 μm × 560 μm, which leads to a theoretical thermomechanical noise of 9 μg/√Hz. The accelerometer has been fabricated using a modified silicon-on-glass (SOG) process, in which a groove is pre-etched into the glass to hold the metal electrode. This SOG process greatly improves the silicon-to-glass bonding yield. The measurement results show that the resonant frequency of the accelerometer is about 2.05 kHz, the noise floor is 28 μg/√Hz, and the nonlinearity is less than 0.5%. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue MEMS Sensors and Actuators: Design, Fabrication and Applications)
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15 pages, 10166 KiB  
Article
Dual-Model Derailment Detection Algorithm Based on Variational Bayesian Kalman Filtering
by Shiwei Fan, Xu Gao, Ya Zhang, Huhe Chen, Guoxing Yi and Qiang Hao
Micromachines 2024, 15(8), 939; https://doi.org/10.3390/mi15080939 - 23 Jul 2024
Viewed by 2311
Abstract
A derailment detection algorithm for railway freight cars based on micro inertial measurement units was designed to address the complex issue of the disassembly and assembly of derailment braking devices. Firstly, a horizontal attitude measurement model for freight cars was established, and attitude [...] Read more.
A derailment detection algorithm for railway freight cars based on micro inertial measurement units was designed to address the complex issue of the disassembly and assembly of derailment braking devices. Firstly, a horizontal attitude measurement model for freight cars was established, and attitude measurement algorithms based on gyroscopes and accelerometers were introduced. Subsequently, a high-precision attitude measurement algorithm based on variational Bayesian Kalman filtering was proposed, which used acceleration information as the observation data to correct attitude errors. In order to improve the accuracy of derailment detection, a dual-model instantaneous attitude difference measurement technique was further proposed. In order to verify the effectiveness of the algorithm, offline data from simulation experiments and in-vehicle experiments were used to validate the proposed algorithm. The results showed that the proposed algorithm can effectively improve the measurement accuracy of horizontal attitude changes, reducing the error by 89% compared to pure inertial attitude calculation, laying a technical foundation for improving the accuracy of derailment detection. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue MEMS Sensors and Actuators: Design, Fabrication and Applications)
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16 pages, 9132 KiB  
Article
Temperature Compensation for MEMS Accelerometer Based on a Fusion Algorithm
by Yangyanhao Guo, Zihan Zhang, Longkang Chang, Jingfeng Yu, Yanchao Ren, Kai Chen, Huiliang Cao and Huikai Xie
Micromachines 2024, 15(7), 835; https://doi.org/10.3390/mi15070835 - 27 Jun 2024
Viewed by 3709
Abstract
This study proposes a fusion algorithm based on forward linear prediction (FLP) and particle swarm optimization–back propagation (PSO-BP) to compensate for the temperature drift. Firstly, the accelerometer signal is broken down into several intrinsic mode functions (IMFs) using variational modal decomposition (VMD); then, [...] Read more.
This study proposes a fusion algorithm based on forward linear prediction (FLP) and particle swarm optimization–back propagation (PSO-BP) to compensate for the temperature drift. Firstly, the accelerometer signal is broken down into several intrinsic mode functions (IMFs) using variational modal decomposition (VMD); then, according to the FE algorithm, the IMF signal is separated into mixed components, temperature drift, and pure noise. After that, the mixed noise is denoised by FLP, and PSO-BP is employed to create a model for temperature adjustment. Finally, the processed mixed noise and the processed IMFs are rebuilt to obtain the enhanced output signal. To confirm that the suggested strategy works, temperature experiments are conducted. After the output signal is processed by the VMD-FE-FLP-PSO-BP algorithm, the acceleration random walk has been improved by 23%, the zero deviation has been enhanced by 24%, and the temperature coefficient has been enhanced by 92%, compared with the original signal. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue MEMS Sensors and Actuators: Design, Fabrication and Applications)
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14 pages, 3937 KiB  
Article
Optimized Design of Lithium Niobate Tuning Forks for the Measurement of Fluid Characteristic Parameters
by Man Tang, Dehua Chen, Mi Zhang, Feng Jiang and Yu Wang
Micromachines 2023, 14(12), 2138; https://doi.org/10.3390/mi14122138 - 22 Nov 2023
Viewed by 1106
Abstract
The unique double-cantilever beam structure and vibration mode of the tuning fork enable the measuring of fluid density and viscosity synchronously in a decoupling manner. Therefore, it is widely employed in oil and gas development and in petrochemical, food, textile, and other industries. [...] Read more.
The unique double-cantilever beam structure and vibration mode of the tuning fork enable the measuring of fluid density and viscosity synchronously in a decoupling manner. Therefore, it is widely employed in oil and gas development and in petrochemical, food, textile, and other industries. In this paper, quality factors are used to characterize the energy losses of lithium niobate tuning forks when vibrating in a fluid, and the influence parameters, such as length, width, and thickness of the tuning fork arm, etc., of different quality factors are examined with a focus on the viscous quality factor of the fluid. The optimized design of lithium niobate tuning fork dimensions is carried out on this premise, and the analytical solution of the optimal dimension of the lithium niobate tuning fork in the air is obtained. Secondly, the optimal dimension of the lithium niobate tuning fork in fluids is given out by finite element simulation, and the sensitivity of the optimized fork to the viscosity of fluids is investigated. The results show that the optimized tuning fork has a higher quality factor, and thus has a larger parameter measurement range as well as being more sensitive to the change in the fluid density and viscosity. Therefore, the results are of great significance for guiding the preparation and practical application of lithium niobate tuning forks. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue MEMS Sensors and Actuators: Design, Fabrication and Applications)
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12 pages, 4246 KiB  
Communication
A Porous Nanostructured ZnO Layer for Ultraviolet Sensing with Quartz Crystal Microbalance Technique
by Abil S. Asvarov, Arsen E. Muslimov, Soslan S. Makhmudov and Vladimir M. Kanevsky
Micromachines 2023, 14(8), 1584; https://doi.org/10.3390/mi14081584 - 11 Aug 2023
Viewed by 1188
Abstract
Porous films of metals and metal oxides have gained growing attention as potential materials for use in applications that require large, specific surface areas, such as sensors, supercapacitors, and batteries. In this study, a “black-metal”-like porous Zn–ZnO composite layer was grown by room [...] Read more.
Porous films of metals and metal oxides have gained growing attention as potential materials for use in applications that require large, specific surface areas, such as sensors, supercapacitors, and batteries. In this study, a “black-metal”-like porous Zn–ZnO composite layer was grown by room temperature co-sputtering of Zn metal and ZnO:Ga (3 at/%) ceramic targets. Following deposition, a porous ZnO layer was obtained by a subsequent thermal annealing process at 400 °C in air. The morphology and structural properties of the obtained porous layered objects were analyzed. The porosity and chemical characteristics of the nanostructured ZnO layer obtained with the method herein described make it suitable to be used as a sensitivity-enhancing active layered element in quartz crystal microbalance (QCM)-based ultraviolet (UV) sensors. The prepared resonant ZnO/QCM sensors under UV radiation exhibited maximum shift up to 35 Hz for several “on-off” UV cycles, excellent response, and recovery times of 11 and 12 s, respectively. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue MEMS Sensors and Actuators: Design, Fabrication and Applications)
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