A MEMS Micro Force Sensor Based on a Laterally Movable Gate Field-Effect Transistor (LMGFET) with a Novel Decoupling Sandwich Structure

Wendi Gao; Zhixia Qiao; Xiangguang Han; Xiaozhang Wang; Adnan Shakoor; Cunlang Liu; Dejiang Lu; Ping Yang; Libo Zhao; Yonglu Wang; Jiuhong Wang; Zhuangde Jiang; Dong Sun

doi:10.1016/j.eng.2022.06.018

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Engineering ›› 2023, Vol. 21 ›› Issue (2) : 61-74. DOI: 10.1016/j.eng.2022.06.018

Research

Article

A MEMS Micro Force Sensor Based on a Laterally Movable Gate Field-Effect Transistor (LMGFET) with a Novel Decoupling Sandwich Structure

Wendi Gao^a^,^b^,^c^,^d ,
Zhixia Qiao^e ,
Xiangguang Han^a^,^b ,
Xiaozhang Wang^a^,^b ,
Adnan Shakoor^f^,^g ,
Cunlang Liu^a ,
Dejiang Lu^a^,^b ,
Ping Yang^a^,^b ,
Libo Zhao^a^,^b ,
Yonglu Wang^a^,^b ,
Jiuhong Wang^a^,^b ,
Zhuangde Jiang^a^,^b ,
Dong Sun^a^,^g

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Abstract

This paper presents the development of a novel micro force sensor based on a laterally movable gate field-effect transistor (LMGFET). A precise electrical model is proposed for the performance evaluation of small-scale LMGFET devices and exhibits improved accuracy in comparison with previous models. A novel sandwich structure consisting of a gold cross-axis decoupling gate array layer and two soft photoresistive SU-8 layers is utilized. With the proposed dual-differential sensing configuration, the output current of the LMGFET lateral operation under vertical interference is largely eliminated, and the relative output error of the proposed sensor decreases from 4.53% (traditional differential configuration) to 0.01%. A practicable fabrication process is also developed and simulated for the proposed sensor. The proposed LMGFET-based force sensor exhibits a sensitivity of 4.65 µA·nN−1, which is comparable with vertically movable gate field-effect transistor (VMGFET) devices, but has an improved nonlinearity of 0.78% and a larger measurement range of ±5.10 µN. These analyses provide a comprehensive design optimization of the electrical and structural parameters of LMGFET devices and demonstrate the proposed sensor's excellent force-sensing potential for biomedical micromanipulation applications.

Keywords

Force sensor / Laterally movable gate / Field-effect transistor / Photoresistive SU-8 / Biomedical micromanipulation

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Wendi Gao, Zhixia Qiao, Xiangguang Han, Xiaozhang Wang, Adnan Shakoor, Cunlang Liu, Dejiang Lu, Ping Yang, Libo Zhao, Yonglu Wang, Jiuhong Wang, Zhuangde Jiang, Dong Sun. A MEMS Micro Force Sensor Based on a Laterally Movable Gate Field-Effect Transistor (LMGFET) with a Novel Decoupling Sandwich Structure. Engineering, 2023, 21(2): 61‒74 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eng.2022.06.018

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