Micro-sensor for foot pressure measurement

Yufridin Wahab, Aladin Zayegh and Ronny Veljanovski

School of Electrical Engineering Faculty of Health, Engineering and Science, Victoria University, PO Box 14428, MCMC, Melbourne, VIC 8001, Australia Email: yufridin.wahab@live.vu.edu.au
AbstractThe measurement of interface pressure between the foot and shoe is important in gait analysis and other health diagnosis. Abnormal pressure may indicate instability in gait, risks of ulceration development especially in diabetic foot as well as have many other biomedical diagnostic applications. However, the currently available foot pressure sensors show a number of weaknesses that limit their performance in the measurement of foot plantar pressure. This paper reports the design and analysis of a MEMS-based pressure sensor customized for foot pressure measurement. The maximum pressure measurement can be up to 2-MPa with high linearity across the proposed pressure range. These optimized characteristics show excellent potential for the sensors suitability for pressure measurement in a wide spectrum of biomechanical activities. Index Termspressure measurement, biomedical equipment, gait assessment. biomechanics,

Rezaul K. Begg
Biomechanics Unit, CARES/HMRP, Victoria University, PO Box 14428, Melbourne, VIC 8001, Australia. Email: rezaul.begg@vu.edu.au

paper we, therefore, explore the possibility of developing a micro-sensor for foot pressure measurement using a very stable MEMS technology. II. LITERATURE A. Current Sensors A number of foot-shoe pressure sensors are available in the market and many are mentioned in [4]. These are made of many different types of material, using different types of manufacturing technologies, different sizes, showing unique specifications and are operated based on various measurement techniques. The materials involve flexible polymeric layers, dielectrics and also electrical conductors. Some materials used in the sensor development limit the sensors performance thus creating many issues (such as hysteresis) as highlighted in [5]. Many of the sensors are made as arrays of similarly sized sensor elements. Size of individual sensor affects the efficiency of the measurement system [4]. In terms of measurement technique, commonly used techniques are resistive, capacitive, ink-based and others. Each of the techniques offers unique sensitivity and other signal properties. Table I shows some of the portable in-shoe applicable sensors currently available in the market with their key characteristics.
TABLE I IN-SHOE PRESSURE SENSORS IN THE MARKET FSA 7.94mmX 12.7mm (2mm thick)[6] 128[6] (inshoe) Tekscan 0.15mm thick, (4 sensors/cm) [7] 4 sensors/cm, 960 (insole) [7] 1034 [7] Novel (1.9mm thick) [8] 99 (insole) [8] 1200 [8] Parotec ~4cm2 (hydrocell) [9]

I. INTRODUCTION HE interface pressure between foot plantar surface and shoe soles is an important parameter frequently measured during gait analysis. This foot pressure measurement has wide applications, for example screening for high risk diabetic foot ulceration, design of orthotics for diabetes mellitus and peripheral neuropathy, footwear design [1], improvement of balance [2], sports injury prevention in athletes [3] plus many more. It is therefore crucial to devise techniques to accurately and efficiently measure this type of foot pressure. For example, foot ulcer among the diabetes mellitus patients can be prevented if accurate monitoring of foot plantar pressure distribution is performed prior to the actual ulcer development so that remedial actions can be taken at a more suitable time. There are a few currently available commercial foot-pressure sensors (see Table I), however, these sensors are not fully fulfilling the requirement of various biomechanical applications. The performance limitations of the currently available sensors, either in the specified pressure range, hysteresis or creep, may cause erroneous readings or even worse, the malfunctioning of the device. The emergence of decades old micro-electro-mechanical system (MEMS) technology provides a great opportunity to further advance the specification of foot pressure measurement devices. In this

Sensor size

Number of sensors

24[10] (insole)

Range (kPa)

206[6]

Frequency (Hz) Hysteresis

Not available Not available

500[7] 21% [4]

Not available <7%[8]

625 from bench testing (62.5Ncm-2) [10] 100 basic and 250 sport [10] 0.05% at 20Ncm-2 [10]

The currently available sensors such as from FSA, Tekscan and Novel exhibit many performance limitations as they are made of sheets of polymer or elastomer. The resulting issues include repeatability, hysteresis, creep and non-linearity of the sensor output [5]. In addition to the above weaknesses, some sensors (e.g., manufactured by Parotec) have limited pressure range and relatively large sensor size as can be seen in the following section. B. Application Requirement Nowadays, real-time and in-situ measurement of natural parameters is becoming an unavoidable trend. To catch-up with the fast changing and very demanding trend, also, as gait analysis is about measurement of uninterrupted real parameters, any devices to be used in gait analysis must fulfill the requirements such as those explained in detail in [5]. Based on the report, the sensor should exhibit acceptable linearity, low hysteresis, low creep (drift), low temperature sensitivity for the range of 20oC to 37oC operation, flexible, thin, range of up to 200kPa, repeatability of readings and finally unobtrusive, cost effective and easy to use. In the research presented in that article, an analysis of a new package for a silicon based pressure sensor is explained. The proposed package is proven to enable silicon pressure sensor to be used in foot plantar pressure measurement. To avoid duplication, this research excludes package design as it is already proven in [5] that the proposed package in the article is suitable for MEMS pressure sensor. In addition to the above mentioned requirements, a review paper on diabetic ulceration, [11], highlighted that patients measured with foot pressure of 875kPa or 87.5Ncm-2 may be susceptible to ulceration. Size of each sensor element is another critical issue. As large sized sensor may underestimate the peak pressure, it is suggested that sensor size of 5mm X 5mm should be used, whereas sensors smaller than this must be designed as array sensors [4]. It is also suggested that for walking, pressure sensor should be able to measure up to 1000kPa, or 10kgcm-2 (about 100Ncm-2). Considering all the above requirements and the current limitations, it is obvious that there is a need for an improved design that can satisfy the key requirements. In terms of frequency of operation, it is suggested that sensors that are capable of sampling at least 200Hz must be designed to be useful in measuring pressure dynamics accurately of all the regions under foot [4]. III. PRESSURE SENSOR DESIGN The targeted specification of the pressure sensor is that it satisfies the above mentioned requirements. As reported in [5], a repackaged commercially available silicon pressure sensor can demonstrate superior performance such as in terms of linearity, hysteresis and repeatability. In summary, as MEMS sensor is proven to be showing negligible mechanical hysteresis [12], this paper will focus more on a MEMS sensor design that should achieve measurement of pressure more than 1MPa with good linearity without neglecting sensitivity. In this research, piezo-resistive sensing technique is chosen as it

requires simple signal processing and excellent linearity [13]. The sensor will be fabricated using the MultiMEMS MPW service of Infineon Technologies SensoNor. It offers membrane thickness options of 3.1m and 23.1m. The design steps are divided into several major steps as to be described in the following subsections. A. Membrane Design This first major step is aimed at determining the membrane dimensions that can perform pressure measuring task for the specified range. This involves finding values of its thickness, length and width that may allow linear membrane deflection within the pressure range while ensuring no mechanical damage or fracture. This is a very important step and therefore it involves detail modeling of the membrane deflection and the resulting stresses for the corresponding applied pressure. As piezo-resistance change depends on magnitude of stress variation, a square shaped membrane is chosen as it exhibits higher stress values as compared to a circular shaped diaphragm, about 1.64 times [13]. Mathematically, the relationship between the applied pressure on a membrane and maximum membrane deflection can be modeled by (1) [14]. This is a cubic equation and requires numerical solution. 1 .935 a 2 P = ( 234 .156 N + 46 .988 aD2 + 6 .671 ) w 0 2
Eh 3 w 0 2 2a The values of N, and can be calculated using the equations below: 289 . 97

(1)

0h . 1 ( 17 . 148 ) 2 . = ( 71 . 837 4 . 189 ) 2 ( 17 . 148 )( 6 . 236 )( + 1 . 421 ) = . ( 71 . 837 4 .189 ) 2 ( 2 1)

N =

(2) (3) (4)

As membrane deflects further with increasing pressure P, mechanical stress on the membrane increases too. The resulting stress on the membrane can be divided into three components [15] namely Bending Stress, Tensile Stress and Intrinsic Stress, 0. The governing equations are as represented in (5).

T = 0 .864

Eh 2 w 0 Eh 2 w 0 + 6 . 5 + 0. a2 h a2 h

(5)

Here, 0 is Intrinsic Stress. The total stress, T is a summation of all the three components and the Griffith fracture criterion suggests that the total stress must not exceed a critical stress value represented by c. If the total stress surpasses the critical stress, c, the propagation of microcracks across the structure may happen and thus may cause membrane breakage [15]. Another value that requires attention is Fracture Stress, where if the total stress exceeds this value, the membrane will theoretically be broken.

From this mathematical modeling and analysis, the theoretically suitable design is a square membrane with 100m side-length for a 23.1m thick membrane. For a 3.1m thick silicon membrane, side-length of 15m is good enough. Natural resonant frequency of the membrane is also critical for gait analysis application as the applied pressure contain harmonics of a certain frequency range [4]. Resonance of the membrane due to the any of the harmonics component may cause reading errors. B. Sensing Piezo-resistors Wheatstone bridge is used in sensing circuit realization. Even though it is good to find the best values for the dimensions and placement of piezo-resistors as they are very influential in determining the output voltage, they are not the major aims in this study. Therefore, the reported achievements in the literature are used as guide for identifying the suitable placement and piezo-resistor size for the sensor. The sensing piezo-resistors are aligned in the <110> direction where the piezo-resistance coefficients are maximum [16]. The width of the piezo-resistors follows exactly the minimum dimension allowed in [17] while the length is chosen to be double the width value. This value is arbitrarily chosen considering the averaging effect [18] and the limitation imposed by the sidelength value. The study of the optimized length and width will be performed in the future. The resistors are normally located at places where maximum stress is identified, as the stress, results strains, that deforms the shape. Following the simple model documented in [19], the relationship between stress and pressure is modeled by equation (6) whereas (7) represents stress and strain relationship. Consider a piezoresistor of length L and width W under mechanical stress, the longitudinal piezo-resistors, Rl, may be elongated a magnitude of L, while the transversal ones, Rt, widened (W) due to the strains as represented in (8) and (9). Here, Rs is the sheet resistance of the piezo-resistors. All the above mentioned equations are listed below.

difficult due to very limited space. In addition, process variation such as misalignment may further limit the yield of the 3.1m thick 15m sized membrane sensor design. The work is therefore continued with the thicker membrane only. Fig. 1 shows the three-dimensional image of the enlarged pressure sensor view in Coventorware. Silicon bulk processing is used in the micro-machining modeling. B. Piezo-resistor Bridge For piezo-resistor interconnection, a Wheatstone Bridge arrangement is used. All four piezo-resistors are designed with intended similar values by careful sizing to balance the bridge. The surface piezo-resistor structure is chosen due to its higher sensitivity than the other piezo-resistor structure. Fig. 2 depicts the placement of the resistors on the membrane. Fig. 3 shows the bridge and its signal amplification circuitry.

Fig. 1. The 3D screenshot of the modeled Pressure Sensor.

= 0 . 3 P

a h L W = = = E L W L + L L + L = Rs W W L L Rt = R s = Rs W + W W + W Rl = R s

(6) (7)
Fig. 2. The locations of the four piezo-resistors are as shown. The area covered by the white colored square in the middle of the diagram is the membrane. This is not up to scale and included just to show the relative placements of individual resistors.

(8) (9)

IV. SENSOR FABRICATION AND MODELING A. Silicon Micromachining of Membrane Coventorware design tool is used in the fabrication and three-dimensional modeling of the 23.1m thick 100m sized sensor membrane. As the 3.1m thick membrane requires a very small membrane size, which is just around 15m, piezoresistors realization on the membrane is becoming very

Fig. 3. The simulation circuit with piezo-resistor Wheatstone bridge. The amplifier increase the voltage readings a hundred times.

V. RESULTS A. Membrane Deflection The most deflected area is the centre of the membrane. As the observation region moves closer to the membrane sides, the deflection decreases gradually and quite linearly. Maximum deflection occurs at the centre of the membrane. Fig. 4 shows the relationship between the applied pressure and the maximum membrane deflection obtained from Coventorware finite-element-analysis output. As predicted in the calculation, the deflection is linearly proportional to the pressure magnitude.

membrane is performed. Fig. 6 shows the result of the analysis. The result of the analysis is shown in Fig. 6 and is used in finalizing the actual placements of the piezo-resistors, which are depicted in Fig. 2. As can be seen, the analysis is very helpful in improving the output signal strength. D. Output Relationship In simulating the system performance, a basic signal conditioning circuit is used. An operational amplifier and four gain resistors are connected to the sensor Wheatstone bridge as shown in Fig. 3. The key values of the resistors are as shown in the figure. As predicted, the relationship of the applied pressure and the output voltage is very linear as can be seen in Fig. 7. Obviously, this is due to the fact that the membrane is deflected in its small deflection regime.

Fig. 4. Graph depicting maximum membrane deflection vs Pressure.

Fig. 5. The stress map. The membrane is the square shape mesh in the middle.

B. Stresses Calculations performed using (5) produced results that shows maximum pressure that can be applied without violating the Griffith fracture criterion is about 1.5MPa. On the other hand, 2MPa of applied pressure is needed to cause the total stress to touch the 500MPa level, which is the maximum stress allowed by the fabrication process. The fracture stress of 7GPa is reached when 32MPa of load size is applied. The values for calculation are Youngs Modulus, E = 152GPa, Poisons ratio, = 0.3, critical stress, c, 412MPa and Intrinsic Stress, 0 = 65MPa, taken from [15]. In simulation results, Von Misses stress values are used to identify maximum stress at any particular location on the membrane. The von Misses stress values are a good indicator for applicability of the design, as reported in [20]. As shown in Fig. 5, the Von Misses stress is maximum in the membrane center where deflection is maximum while the value is merely 13MPa. The middle of the sides or membrane edges also show significant stress values of around 6MPa. This shows that the design may be suitable for the targeted range without causing rupture. C. Piezoresistor Placement An analysis to identify the location of piezo-resistors on the

Output voltage (mV)

Offset in x direction (m) Fig. 6. The analysis to find a better set of locations for the piezo-resistors. Negative x offset means outside of the membrane while more positive y offset values mean closer to the membrane centre.

[8]

Output voltage (mV)

[9]

[10]

[11]

[12]

Pressure (MPa) Fig. 7. Graph demonstrating highly linear output voltage vs pressure relationship.

[13]

[14]

E. Modal Analysis Natural resonance frequency is determined in finite-element analysis. The result of modal analysis indicated a resonance at 2.14MHz and this is far beyond the maximum operational frequency requirement of 200Hz for most biomechanical activities [4]. Therefore, this design is very suitable for the intended application. VI. CONCLUSION A design and analysis of a pressure sensor for foot-to-shoe interface pressure measurement is reported. Results show the sensor fulfills the major performance requirements that are necessary for the sensor to be applicable for a number of potential major biomedical measurements and applications. ACKNOWLEDGMENT The authors wish to thank Dr Daniel Lapadatu for valuable advise on Infineon Technologies SensoNor MPW service. REFERENCES
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[2]

[3]

[4] [5]

[6]

[7]