A Novel MEMS Pressure Sensor with MOSFET on

Chip
Zhao-Hua Zhang *, Yan-Hong Zhang, Li-Tian Liu, Tian-Ling Ren
Tsinghua National Laboratory for Information Science and Technology
Institute of Microelectronics, Tsinghua University
Beijing 100084, China
imezzh@tsinghua.edu.cn

Abstract—A novel MOSFET pressure sensor was proposed Figure 1. Two PMOSFET’s and two piezoresistors are
based on the MOSFET stress sensitive phenomenon, in which connected to form a Wheatstone bridge. To obtain the
the source-drain current changes with the stress in channel maximum sensitivity, these components are placed near the
region. Two MOSFET’s and two piezoresistors were employed four sides of the silicon diaphragm, which are the high stress
to form a Wheatstone bridge served as sensitive unit in the regions. The MOSFET’s has the same structure parameter
novel sensor. Compared with the traditional piezoresistive W/L, same threshold voltage VT and gate-source voltage VGS
pressure sensor, this MOSFET sensor’s sensitivity is improved (equal to VG-Vdd). They are designed to work in the
significantly, meanwhile the power consumption can be saturation region. The piezoresistors also have the same
decreased. The fabrication of the novel pressure sensor is low-
resistance R0.
cost and compatible with standard IC process. It shows the
great promising application of MOSFET-bridge-circuit
structure for the high performance pressure sensor. This kind
of MEMS pressure sensor with signal process circuit on the
same chip can be used in positive or negative Tire Pressure
Monitoring System (TPMS) which is very hot in automotive
electron research field.

I. INTRODUCTION
Piezoresistive pressure microsensor is one kind of the
most widely used pressure sensors for automotive,
aerospace, biomedicine, and many other applications [1-3]. It
is usually composed of a silicon membrane and a
Wheatstone bridge circuit with four piezoresistors. The
piezo-resistances change with the stress and therefore output
the pressure information. Figure 1. (a) Schematic of novel MOSFET pressure sensor including two
MOSFET and two resistors on the membrane to form a Wheatstone bridge,
MOSFET also has a stress sensitive phenomenon, in (b) The MOSFET-based bridge circuit, the output voltage is Vout=Vout1-
which the source current changes with the stress in channel Vout2, the voltage source is Vdd.
region [4-6]. Some experimental applications e.g. MOS ring
oscillator accelerometer have been reported [7]. In this paper, When there is no forced pressure, the bridge is in
a novel MOSFET pressure sensor was reported, which used balance. The balanced output V0 of each arm is:
two PMOSFET’s and two piezoresistors to form a bridge
circuit. The structure design and operating principle were 1 W
R0 ⋅ μ p 0 COX (VGS − VT ) .
2
demonstrated. The fabrication process was described. V0 = (1)
2 L
Measurement results of the sensor’s sensitivity and power
show significant improvement compared with traditional As a result, the sensor output signal Vout is zero.
piezoresistive pressure sensor.
When a pressure is forced on the membrane, the current
II. DESIGN and piezo-resistance in each bridge arm are changed. The
variation of the PMOSFET current is proportional to the
Based on the stress sensitive effect of MOSFET, a new change of channel mobility Δμp, computed as:
MOSFET-bridge-circuit structure is designed, as shown in

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 ΔI DS / I DS = Δμ μ0 = π l ⋅ σ l + π t ⋅ σ t , (2)

where σl and σt are the parallel and vertical stress in the

channel; πl and πt are the parallel and vertical channel
piezoresistive coefficient, respectively. The change of piezo-
resistance is also proportional to the resistor mobility change
ΔμR, which can be expressed using a similar formula, as:

ΔR / R0 = Δμ R μ R 0 = π l ⋅ σ l + π t ⋅ σ t , (3)

where σl and σt are the parallel and vertical stress in the

resistor bar; πl and πt are the parallel and vertical
piezoresistive coefficient, respectively.
According to the different current direction placing, the
bridge becomes unbalance. The μp of M1 and the μR of R2
get increased with the stress, in opposition, the μp of M2 and
the μR of R1 are decreased. Then the two arms’ outputs
become as:
Figure 2. Process flow of the MOSFET pressure sensor based on Al-gate
post-IC process and bulk silicon MEMS process.
1 W
( R0 ± ΔR ) ⋅ ( μ p 0 ± Δμ p ) COX (VGS − VT ) , (4)
2
Vout 1,2 =
2 L
IV. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
therefore the sensor output is obtained as: The sensitivity and power of the MOSFET pressure
sensor are deduced and measured, which are the most
⎛ Δμ p Δμ R ⎞ important performance parameter for the pressure
Vout = 2 ⎜ + ⎟⎟ ⋅ V0 . (5) microsensor. These parameters (using the subscript “MOS”)
⎜μ
⎝ p 0 μR 0 ⎠ are compared with those of the traditional piezoresistive
pressure sensor (using the subscript “res”).
Formula (5) shows that, Vout is proportional to the stress
as well as the forced pressure. This is the operating principle A. Performance parameters
of the novel MOSFET-bridge-circuit pressure microsensor. The sensor sensitivity is:

III. FABRICATION
Vout ⎛ Δμ p Δμ R ⎞ V0
The whole fabrication was based on Al-gate post-IC SMOS = = 2⎜ + ⎟⎟ ⋅ . (6)
⎜μ
process, as shown in Figure 2. First, a (100)-oriented n-type Vdd ⎝ p0 μR0 ⎠ Vdd
silicon wafer (6~8Ωcm) was selected as start substrate, with
SiO2 and Si3N4 layers on both sides, deposited by thermal The balanced power is computed as:
oxidation and LPVCD methods. Second, the backside was
etched in 33% KOH solution to form the silicon membrane. Vdd − VSD0 ⎛ V ⎞V 2
Third, a new field SiO2 layer is thermal oxidized. Fourth, the PMOS = 2Vdd ⋅ = 2 ⎜ 1 − SD0 ⎟ dd , (7)
source and drain windows formed, and then high-dope boron R0 ⎝ Vdd ⎠ R0
was implanted to form the source and drain. Fifth, the gate
area and piezoresistor windows formed. A low-dope boron where VSD0 is the balanced source drain voltage. To ensure
implantation was performed to adjust the VT and form the the PMOSFET working in the saturation region, the VSD
piezoresistors. Then a thin gate SiO2 layer was thermal must meet the requirement of:
oxidized. Sixth, Al layer was sputtered and wet etched to
form the interconnection. At last, Si-Au/Ti-Si bonding was VSD > VSG − VT > 0 . (8)
performed in vacuum to form the pressure referential cavity.
In all, five lithography steps were used. The whole process is
low-cost and compatible with standard IC process. The output expression of traditional silicon piezoresistive
pressure microsensor uses Wheatstone bridge circuit with
four piezoresistors is:

ΔR Δμ R
Vout = ⋅ Vdd = ⋅V . (9)
R0 μ R 0 dd

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The sensor sensitivity and balanced power are: significantly. In region III (0.5 < α < 1), the sensitivity and
power get both raised. However, the increase of sensitivity is
Vout Δμ R more remarkable than that of power. At the upper limit of α
Sres = = , (10) (equals to 1), the MOSFET sensor’s sensitivity and power
Vdd μR0 are raised by 300% and 100%, respectively.

Vdd 2
Pres = . (11)
R0

To compare the performance between the MOSFET

sensor and the traditional piezoresistive sensor, the same
resistors and membrane size, i.e., the same stress distribution,
are used. According to above computations, it is obtained
that

S MOS
= 2α (1 + β ) , (12)
S res
Figure 3. The sensitivity and power dependence on α and β between
MOSFET and piezoresistive sensors
PMOS
= 2α , (13)
Pres B. Measurement results
The measured sensitivity and linearity error of MOSFET
where pressure sensor and the reference piezoresistive sensor are
shown in Figures 4-5. The sensitivity of the fabricated
MOSFET pressure sensor sample was 0.3mV/KPa, and the
W (VGS − VT )
2
V0 V 1 linearity error was 0.6% FS. These parameters were better
α= = 1 − SD = R0 ⋅ μ p 0 COX , (14)
Vdd Vdd 2 L Vdd than those of the traditional piezoresistive pressure sensor.
When α is set as 0.5, the sensitivity of MOSFET sensor is
improved by 145% compared with the piezoresistive sensor,
(π lσ l + π tσ t )MOS with the same power. When α is set as 0.4, the sensitivity of
β= . (15) MOSFET sensor is improved by 89%, and meantime the
(π lσ l + π tσ t )res
power is decrease by 20%. The results show significant
improvement of the new MOSFET pressure sensor.
α is a circuit factor, expressing the working point of the
bridge, which can be adjusted by changing the size design
and process parameters. The upper limit of α is near to 1. β is V. CONCLUSION
a material factor, symbolizing the ratio of stress sensitive The design, fabrication and measurement results of novel
degree between MOSFET’s and piezoresistors. It can be MOSFET pressure sensor are reported. The MOSFET
changed with different fabrication conditions. Ref [5] has sensor’s sensitivity is improved significantly; meanwhile the
reported that the β for PMOSFET is more than 0.5. So the power consumption can be decreased. It shows the great
typical regions α and β are: promising application of MOSFET-bridge-circuit structure
for the high performance pressure sensor.
0 < α < 1, β > 0.5 . (16)
VI. ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The factor (α, β) dependences of sensitivity and power The authors thank for Chinese National High Technology
between MOSFET and piezoresistive sensor is shown in Project (863project 2006AA04Z372) support.
Figure 3. Take β equal to 0.8 as an example, in region I (α <
0.28), the sensitivity and power of MOSFET sensor are both
decreased compared with the piezoresistive sensor. When α REFERENCES
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Figure 5. The sensitivity and the linearity error of the traditional pressure
sensor sample. (a) the sensitivity is 0.2mV/KPa, (b) the linearity error is
0.62% FS.

Figure 4. The sensitivity and the linearity error of fabricated MOSFET

pressure sensor sample. (a) the sensitivity is 0.3mV/KPa, (b) the linearity
error is 0.6% FS.

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