International Journal of Engineering Trends and Technology (IJETT) Volume 4 Issue 10 - Oct 2013

ISSN: 2231-5381 http://www.ijettjournal.org Page 4567

Design Of Temperature Sensors For
Enviromental Applications
Ashish
1
, Kumari Nidhi Gupta
2
, Dr. T. Shanmuganantham
3

1,2
Student, Department Of Electronics Engineering
3
Assistant Professor, Department Of Electronics Engineering
Pondicherry University, Puducherry , India

Abstract MEMS sensors have been widely used in
automobiles, airplanes, submarines, and biomedical devices.
For some applications such as aerospace and underground
oil exploration, sensors which can endure extremely high
temperature are required. In this paper, the design and
simulation of temperature sensor for high-temperature
applications is proposed. The sensor is an array of bimorph
cantilevers whose deflections are sensed by application of
temperature . The cantilevers are initially thermally annealed
to relax the film stresses. With change in materials of
bimorph, overall sensitivity also changes.

KeywordsMEMS, Cantilever, Bimorph, Displacement.
I.INTRODUCTION
The Temperature sensor works on the principle
that deflection occurs due to an applied
temperature on the bimorph[1]. The aim of this
work is to model, compare and analyze the
different performance parameters like deflection,
voltage output and sensitivity[2].
A bimorph is created by stacking two materials
with different coefficients of thermal expansion
(CTE)[3]. As temperature increases, the material
with the higher CTE will expand to a greater
extent, and cause the structure to deflect. To
generate large deflection, a metal is commonly
used for the top layer, and a dielectric for the
bottom[4].

II. SENSOR DESIGN METHODOLOGY
The measurement and control of temperature is
important in many areas including industry,
domestic environment & medicine. Different
methods are used for measurements of
temperature using different principles as-RTD
,Thermocouple, Bimorph. Here we have used
Bimorph material for temperature sensing. A
bimorph is created by stacking two materials
with differing coefficients of thermal expansion .
As temperature increases, the material with the
higher CTE will expand to a greater extent, and
cause the structure to deflect. The temperature
coefficient of resistance is a measure of the
thermal sensitivity of resistors and is defined as
the ratio of resistance change versus temperature
variation to resistance value. Mathematically it is
represented as
R
t
=R
ref
) 1 ( T . . . . . .(1)

Where R is measured value of resistance at
temperature T , R
ref
is measured value of
resistance at reference value of temperature , is
temperature coefficient of resistance and T is
change in temperature.
In present case temperature gradient is subjected
to cantilever beam which results deflection. The
pressure equivalent of temperature of atmosphere
is taken into consideration.
The deflection of beam is given by relation as

2
/
) 1 (
3 t L
E
v

. . . . . .(2)
Where v is the poissons Ratio ,E is the Youngs
Modulus, L is beam length ,t is thickness of
cantilever and is stress/pressure.

III. DESIGN AND MODEL
The Temperature sensor model is drawn using the
3D Builder module of the IntelliSuite Software. In
this paper we discussed two different structures of
Temperature sensors with
1.Gold as sensing layer.
2.Aluminium/Titanium as sensing layer
In first design Gold is used as sensing layer
and Silicon Oxide as dielectric layer. Because of
thermal mismatch in the processing, the beams
are naturally deflected at room temperature. The
thicknesses of these layers and their respective
coefficient of thermal expansion will determine
International Journal of Engineering Trends and Technology (IJETT) Volume 4 Issue 10 - Oct 2013

ISSN: 2231-5381 http://www.ijettjournal.org Page 4568

the amount of deflection at a specific
temperature.


Figure.1 Temperature Sensor Model-1

In second design Aluminum is used as sensing
layer and Titanium layer is underneath the
sensing layer. The thickness and materials
should be selected so that the beams will be flat
at the maximum desired operating temperature.


Figure.2 Temperature Sensor Model-2

IV. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
The fabrication process and associated packaging
are the main steps. The fabrication starts with a
low-resistivity silicon wafer. A wet oxide film is
thermally grown at the wafer to about 1.0 m and
then patterned with a buffered oxide etch
.Subsequently, a layer of Gold is deposited on
the wafer for sensing purpose for first design as
stated in Table-1 and a layer of Aluminium/
Titanium for the second design as depicted in
Table-2. With almost same dimension, sensitivity
is calculated as ratio of output displacement to
that of input temperature as explained in Table-
3.


TABLE-1
Dimension & Material Property of Model-1


LAYERS DIMENSION MATERIAL MATERIAL PROPERTY
(m) YOUNG
MODULUS
(GPa)
POISSON
RATIO
DENSITY
( gm/cc)
Substrate 100505 Silicon 170 0.26 2.32
Dielectric 50201 Silicon
Oxide
73 0.17 2.2
Sensing
Layer
50201 Gold 74.48 0.42 19.32



TABLE-2
Dimension & Material Property of Model-2


LAYERS DIMENSION
(m)
MATERIAL MATERIAL PROPERTY
YOUNG
MODULUS
(GPa)
POISSON
RATIO
DENSITY
( gm/cc)
Substrate 10010010 Silicon 170 0.26 2.32
Dielectric 50200.5 Sio2
PECVD_ECR
61 0.24 2.1
Sensing
Layer
50200.1 Titanium 115 0.3 4.51
50200.3 Aluminium 70 0.36 2.7



TABLE-3
Sensitivity Analysis of Temperature Sensor


Input
Temperature
(C)
Existing Model Proposed Model
Displacement
(m)
Sensitivity (m/C) Displacement
(m)
Sensitivity (m/C)
10 1.02487 1.02487 e-7 1.37522 1.37522 e-7
20 2.07024 1.03512 e-7 2.77046 1.38523 e-7
30 3.11055 1.03685 e-7 4.18896 1.39632 e-7
40 4.14663 1.03665 e-7 5.95692 1.48923 e-7
50 5.19199 1.03839 e-7 7.83333 1.56662 e-7
60 6.23039 1.03839 e-7

9.49944 1.58324 e-7








International Journal of Engineering Trends and Technology (IJETT) Volume 4 Issue 10 - Oct 2013

ISSN: 2231-5381 http://www.ijettjournal.org Page 4569

SIMULATION RESULTS


Fig.3 Model-1 (10 C)


Fig.4 Model-1 (60C )


Fig. 5 Model-2 (10C )


Fig.6 Model-2 (50C)

Sensitivity Analysis of Model 1

Sensitivity Analysis of Model 2


V.CONCLUSION
The effect of cantilever geometry, materials and
dimensions on the sensitivity of a temperature
sensor has been analyzed using INTELLISUITE
as finite element based tool. The sensitivity
analysis for different temperature ranges presents
an idea to utilize a Silicon wafer area in an
optimum manner, when designing cantilever type
temperature sensors for different temperature
ranges. From the analysis it is observed that
Al/Ti metal shows better sensitivity than Gold as
sensing layer.



REFERENCES
[1] .Sean Scott, Farshid Sadeghi, and Dimitrios Peroulis An Inherently-
Robust MEMS Temperature Sensor for Wireless Health Monitoring of
Ball and Rolling Element Bearings, Proceedings of IEEE Conference on
Sensors, New Zealand ,vol.3, May 2009.

[2]. Aaron P. Gerratt, Sarah Bergbreiter, Microfabrication of compliant
all-polymer MEMS thermal actuators, Sensors and Actuators : Physical
J ournal September 2011.

[3]. Sean Scott, J oseph Katz, Farshid Sadeghi, and Dimitrios Peroulis,
Member, Highly Reliable MEMS Temperature Sensors for 275C
ApplicationsPart 2:Creep and Cycling Performance, J ournal of
Micromechanical System vol.no. 22, February 2013.

[4].David Schmidt and Yingzi Lin Design of a Flexible MEMS
Pressure and Temperature Sensing Film, International Workshop on
Advanced Smart Materials and Smart Structures Technology 2011,
Dalian, China.





10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60
1.35
1.4
1.45
1.5
1.55
1.6
Temperature(C)
S
e
n
s
itiv
ity
(1
0
E
-7
/C
)
10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60
1.35
1.4
1.45
1.5
1.55
1.6
Temperature(C)
S
e
n
s
itiv
it
y
(1
0
E
-7
/C
)
International Journal of Engineering Trends and Technology (IJETT) Volume 4 Issue 10 - Oct 2013

ISSN: 2231-5381 http://www.ijettjournal.org Page 4570