Session Number: AC 2008-1533

A Computer Controlled Test System for Micro-lectro-

Mec!"nic"l-#eson"tor $MMS #eson"tor% &"s Sensors
'( )"rd* #( M"c+innon "nd M(&( &u,enc!
-ni,ersity of Sout!ern M"ine
Abstr"ct
T!is p"per describes " computer-controlled test system desi.ned "nd de,eloped to me"sure
"nd c!"r"cteri/e response of MMS #eson"tor &"s Sensors to ,"rious ."s mi0tures "nd
concentr"tions* "nd temper"ture( T!e c!"n.e in t!e reson"nce fre1uency of t!e MMS
reson"tor due to t!e "bsorbed m"ss of ."s molecules on " t!in film co"tin. of " polymer
l"yer is bein. used "s " microb"l"nce to me"sure !"/"rdous ."ses "nd ,ol"tile compounds(
T!e "utom"ted test system de,eloped employs 2"b3ie4 "s t!e soft4"re pl"tform for
interf"cin.* communic"tion* d"t" "c1uisition "nd control bet4een " person"l computer "nd
t!e test setup ,i" t!e &567 bus "nd t!e -S7 "nd seri"l ports( T!e 2"b3ie4 pro.r"m
4ritten controls t!e in8ection time of t!e ."s to be sensed* monitors t!e flo4 r"te* me"sures
"nd controls t!e temper"ture of t!e c!ip "nd monitors "nd records t!e fre1uency of t!e
electro-mec!"nic"l oscill"tions .ener"ted in t!e MMS reson"tor( T!e 4or9 4"s done "s "
p"rt of under.r"du"te senior desi.n pro8ects in en.ineerin. "t -SM(
1( 6ntroduction
The project reported here comprises the design and development of a computer-controlled test
system to measure and characterize the responses of MEMS-based resonant sensors to various
gas mixtures, concentrations and operating temperatures in an automated way
!MEMS" is an acronym for !Micro-Electro-Mechanical System" These devices marry
traditional mechanical systems with microelectronics, using the silicon semiconductor
technology and integrated circuit fabrication MEMS technology is a natural extension of the
integrated circuit technology into the electro-mechanical domain Engineers use the techni#ue of
systematically adding thin films of material on a substrate and then selectively removing portions
of those films and the substrate to form both the mechanical structures and electronic
components of these devices This type of process lends itself to the fabrication of
electromechanical devices in the micrometer scale with fine features down to the sub-micrometer
range $s with semiconductor chip manufacturing, this scale and technology is also conducive to
the production of a large number of devices in a batch very economically
%&'
(as sensors are being developed at the Microelectronics )esearch *abs of Electrical Engineering
+epartment at ,SM by employing the principles of operation of MEMS resonators MEMS
resonators are microminiaturized electromechanical devices designed to display extremely
Proceedings of the 2008 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition
Copyright 2008 American Society for Engineering Education!
Session Number: AC 2008-1533
enhanced mechanical resonance characteristics at a desired fre#uency Since they can be
miniaturized and fabricated on the same chip as the integrated circuit they are challenging the
#uartz crystal which has been the only device available to design stable oscillator and cloc-
fre#uency circuits
.n our laboratories we are designing and developing MEMS resonators that can be used as
microbalance specifically for application in sensing hazardous gas and vapors in the
environment /igure &a displays micrograph of one of the designs Such a resonator consists of a
shuttle mass tethered to a substrate with thin beams acting as springs, and a comb drive
assembly The comb drive serves to create electromechanical coupling between externally
applied voltages and the mechanical motion of the shuttle, therefore, it can be used to sense the
motion of the shuttle as well as to create a driving force on it $s with any resonator, this system
oscillates at a natural fre#uency determined by the mass of the shuttle and the spring constant of
the tethers,
2: fr ;
0 1 2 " #
, where fr is the resonance fre#uency, - is the spring constant and M is the mass involved $n
increase in the mass of the shuttle will reduce the natural fre#uency of the system /or gas
sensing applications, the shuttle can be coated with a thin film of a polymer with gas absorption
properties $ny absorption of gas by the polymer will increase the mass of the system and
therefore lower the fre#uency of its resonance ,tilizing polymers with gas specific #ualities, it is
possible to calibrate the MEMS resonator for gas detection purposes so that the concentrations
can be determined The process of absorption is a temperature dependent reaction, therefore
control or monitoring of the device temperature is important
/or the sensing to be effective, the resonance should be well defined with high #uality factors, 3,
which is a measure of the ratio of resonance fre#uency divided by the width of the resonance
pea- at half power .n /igure &b electromechanical response of one of our MEMS resonators
measured with an 45 6&78$ Spectrum $nalyzer is being displayed This device yields 39s in the
order of 8:: at atmospheric pressure, therefore suitable to be used in an oscillator circuit with its
fre#uency output solely determined by the mechanical oscillations


/igure &a MEMS )esonator /igure &b MEMS )esonator /re#uency )esponse
Proceedings of the 2008 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition
Copyright 2008 American Society for Engineering Education!
Session Number: AC 2008-1533
2( Computer Controlled Test System for MMS #eson"tor &"s Sensors
The test system we have developed employs *ab;iew as the software platform for interfacing,
communication, control and data ac#uisition between a personal computer and the measurement
setup via the (5.< bus, and the ,S< and serial ports .n the set up, the gas or the analyte vapor
to be sensed is mixed with an inert carrier gas to adjust its concentration /low rates and
concentration levels are determined by computer controlled mass flow controllers /igure = gives
a schematic representation of the set-up
/igure = Schematic diagram of the test system for MEMS (as Sensor characterization
The system includes a test chamber which has where the MEMS resonator chip is placed facing
in, flush with the inner wall of the test chamber for exposure to the 2analyte > carrier gas0
mixture The MEMS resonator die is bonded to a 66-pin ?hip ?arrier and wire-bonded to its
terminals The chip carrier is plugged into a 5*?? soc-et and attached to the chamber, therefore,
allowing the wiring to signal processing to remain outside the test chamber and unexposed to the
gas mixture The resonator9s electrical output is fed into a trans-impedance amplifier which acts
as a current to voltage converter ;oltage amplification and phase angle inversion is done by
Proceedings of the 2008 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition
Copyright 2008 American Society for Engineering Education!
Computer controlled
Mass Flow
Controller Unit
Controlled
Environment
HP 5335A
Universal Counter
HP 54504A Digital
scilloscope
Computer!
running "a#$iew
so%tware
Programm
a#le
Power
suppl&
'P()

Quartz Crystal Monitor
MEM*
Gas
In
Gas
HP 4+,4A
(mpedance-'ain Anal&.er
Gas

Carrier Gas
Gas Out
MFC
+
+
Session Number: AC 2008-1533
additional operational amplifier circuits This signal amplification1phase inversion is needed to
bring the closed loop gain of the system to above unity when its output is fed bac- into the comb
drive of the resonator so that self-starting oscillations are obtained to monitor the mechanical
resonant fre#uency of the MEMS structure This facilitates measurement of the changes ta-ing
place in the shuttle mass of the device due to added mass of the gas molecules absorbed
.n our system, out of 6 +1$ channels available, @ are dedicated to set the flow rates through @ gas
lines via @ Mass /low ?ontrollers )emaining +1$ channel is dedicated to set the temperature of
a heater that heats the chip $ll of the +1$ outputs which are limited at >1- &:;+? maximum,
are buffered to provide the power and voltage level needed, &8;+? for the mass flow controllers
and =6;, &=A for the heater
Total of @ mass flow controllers control @ gas flows through @ #uic--connect plastic tubing,
which merge the flows at a manifold to be delivered to the test chamber & of the @ lines is used
for the carrier gas 2Bitrogen or +ry $ir0 and = are for the analyte gases .n these two lines
bubblers are incorporated to add vapors of volatile organic compounds, !;C?9s, such as
alcohols, to facilitate testing the sensor for sensitivity to ;C?9s or added moisture ?oncentration
of the analyte gas and1or ;C? in the test chamber, can thus be adjusted through the ratio of the
flowrates with respect to the carrier gas <y turning on and off, or adjusting the flow ratio
through software the system allows dynamic measurement of sensor response by stepping the
concentration level and synchronize the measurement periods with them
The *ab;iew program written, in addition to the gas mixing ratio, controls the injection time of
the analyte and, synchronizes the cycling of sample temperature with purging and gas injection
in the test chamber $fter each injection the program triggers all measurement instruments and
gathers data to #uantify and generate plots of sensor response vs injected gas concentration and
temperature Temperature control of the MEMS chip is done a with 5.+ control loop of
thermocouple voltage amplified, 5.+ processed in *ab;iew, and outputted as an analog voltage
which controls the +? power of a thin-filmDon-ceramic microheater integrated with the MEMS
chip .n the system a Sycon 3uartz ?rystal Microbalance 23?M0 sensor and its oscillator circuit
are also included to act as reference sensor Therefore, the system has to detect, measure and
monitor two very different oscillation fre#uencies, EM4z output of the 3?M sensor and the @:
F4z output of the MEMS )esonator
/igure @ shows the *ab;iew window displayed while the system is running .t incorporates
graphical display of the monitored variables, li-e the temperature, the two sensor fre#uencies
measured and the mass flow controller outputs 2ie flow rates measured0 Cn the same window
the user set points are also displayed <uttons and their functions and the displayed variables
have been mar-ed on the figure

Proceedings of the 2008 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition
Copyright 2008 American Society for Engineering Education!
Session Number: AC 2008-1533
/igure @ (,. Aindow displayed by the *ab;iew program developed to run the tests
3( Conclusions "nd #em"r9s
The system was built and the *ab;iew programming was done as a part of senior electrical
engineering capstone project at the ,niversity of Southern Maine .t has been used in the
characterization of MEMS )esonator (as Sensors under different temperature and gas
compositions .t is currently being improved by incorporating ,S< based data ac#uisition boards
to replace some of the expensive (5.< interfaced instruments to reduce the overall cost of the
system, and ma-e the system compact and portable Such an inexpensive and portable version
will lend itself to be reproduced for use in other laboratories and find uses other than testing of
MEMS resonator gas sensors

Proceedings of the 2008 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition
Copyright 2008 American Society for Engineering Education!
Session Number: AC 2008-1533
Ac9no4led.ements
This project would not have been possible without the grants from Maine Space (rant
?onsortium, MS(?, and B$S$
#eferences:
%&' ?hang *iu G /oundations of MEMSG 2.llinois Ece Series0 5rentice 4all =::8
%=' <eams, +M, G5roject T,B$ - The +evelopment of a *ab;iew ;irtual .nstrument as a ?lass 5roject in a
Hunior-*evel Electronics ?ourseG, 5roc of $SEE, s==87, =:::
%@' (uvench, M(, (ile, S and 3azi, S !$utomated Measurement of /re#uency )esponse of Electrical Betwor-s,
/ilters and $mplifiers" 5roc of $SEE, s==87, =::&
%6' Aalsh, S and Crabi, .., G$pplication of *ab;iew for ,ndergraduate *ab Experiments Cn ;ibrations TestingG,
5roc of $SEE, s=@=:, =:::
%8' <ishop, )4, G*earning with *ab;iew,G $ddison Aesley, &77I
%E' Aells, *F and Travis, H, !*ab;.EA /or Everyone, (raphical 5rogramming," 5rentice-4all, &77J
%J' *ab;.EA is a product of Bational .nstruments, $ustin, Texas, wwwnatinstcom
Proceedings of the 2008 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition
Copyright 2008 American Society for Engineering Education!