2017

Capacitive Transducer
& Accelerometer

LE VAN MINH
PHAM NGUYEN ANH KHOA

SAI GON SILICON CITY - MEMSITECH | Lot I6, Lot I7, D1 Street, The High Tech Park, Long Thanh My
9 District, Ho Chi Minh City

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Contents
1. Capacitive Transducers ...................................................................................................................... 2
1.1. Electrostatic Forces ..................................................................................................................... 3
1.2. Parallel Plate Capacitors ......................................................................................................... 4
1.2.1. Capacitance Sensing ............................................................................................................ 4
1.2.2. The Pull-in Effect ................................................................................................................ 6
1.3. Tilting-plate Capacitors.............................................................................................................. 7
1.3.1. Nonlinear distortions ........................................................................................................... 8
1.3.2. Instabilities Of a Singular Tilting Plate .............................................................................. 9
1.3.3. Instabilities Of The Tilting Capacitance Pair ..................................................................... 9
1.3.4. Spring Softening................................................................................................................. 10
1.3.5. Stability Limits.................................................................................................................... 10
1.4. Comb Capacitors ...................................................................................................................... 12
1.4.1. Unidirectional linear combs .............................................................................................. 12
1.4.2. Bidirectional Actuation ...................................................................................................... 14
1.4.4. Frame-Based Capacitors ................................................................................................... 16
2. A Capacitive Accelerometer ............................................................................................................. 17
2.1. Fundamentals of Quasi-static Accelerometers ....................................................................... 17
2.2. Position Measurement With Capacitance ............................................................................... 18
2.3. A Complete Capacitance Measurement System..................................................................... 18
2.4. Some of Circuits for Capacitance Measurement.................................................................... 20
2.4.1. Track-And-Hold Circuit..................................................................................................... 20
2.4.2. Chopper-Stabilized Amplifiers Circuit .............................................................................. 20
2.4.3. Correlated Double Sampling Circuit ................................................................................. 21
2.5. Signal-to-Noise Issues ............................................................................................................... 22

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1. Capacitive Transducers
In inertial MEMS four basic arrangements are used:

Plate capacitor with parallel, in-plane electrodes; one electrode movable in the
z-direction

Plate capacitor with one tilting

electrode

Linear comb capacitor with one comb movable in plane

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 Radial comb capacitor with one comb pivotable about the z-axis

1.1. Electrostatic Forces

The potential energy of both is U:
1
U = UC + UV = CV 2
2
Where:
: The potential energy stored in a capacitor with charge Q
1 1
= = 2
2 2
: The potential energy of the voltage generator

= = 2

The negative sign indicates that the voltage generator is discharged on charging
a capacitor. The force acting on the electrodes is the gradient of the potential energy of the system:
1 2
F = V C(q1 , q 2 , q 3 )
2
Where:

The corresponding electrostatic force becomes:

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 Sometimes the forces generated by induced or intentionally applied charges are of
interest. the device is switched off, all voltage generators have zero energy, but the plates of
different capacitances may still be charged or subjected to different charge-redistribution
processes. Charges may have been induced also by external charge-separation processes. In all
these cases the force is given by:
1 Q2
F = UC = QV =
2 2C
If a charged plate capacitor movable in the z-direction is subjected to the force:

1.2. Parallel Plate Capacitors

The plate capacitor with parallel plates and one electrode movable in the z direction is
used for sensing small deviations of the movable electrode from some zero position z0 = 0.
The coefficients SPk are the sensitivities with respect to the k th power of z. The relative
magnitude of the k th distortion is:

SPk z k |z|
k = | | = ( )k1
SP1 z D

1.2.1. Capacitance Sensing

The output voltage Uout:

1 1 1
Uout = ()dt = (Q1 + Q2 ) = (C V + C2 V2 )
CFB CFB CFB 1 1
With:
1 = 0 + : be the capacitance to be measured
2 = 1 = : be set in anti-phase

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 Then:
V V
Uout = (C1 C2 ) = (C + CP C2 )
CFB CFB P0

1.2.1.1. Noise
The output noise voltage UNout :
C1 + C2 + CPar + CFB C1 + C2 + CPar
UNout = VNin = VNin (1 + )
CFB CFB
Where:
: the noise voltage
: the parasitic capacitance
: the charge amplifier
It shows that the signal-to-noise ratio depends only weakly on the value of the
feedback capacitance, which should be chosen to be as small as possible but large enough to avoid
the impact of leakage currents on the integrating capability of the operational amplifier.

1.2.1.2. Excitation Voltages

The excitation voltages V1 and V2 can be DC voltages or periodic functions of time.
The form of harmonic voltages:
V = VDC V0 sin()
In the form of harmonic voltages offer a lot of benefits:
The charge flow is transferred by modulation into the high-frequency domain that
is not affected by the impact of low-frequency noise of the input amplifier.
the generated force has a DC component and high frequency components with
frequencies and 2 that can be adjusted in order to have little impact on the
mechanical behavior of the single plate.

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 1.2.2. The Pull-in Effect
1.2.2.1. Stability Limits
The pull-in effect is the result of instability in the system plate plus spring plus
voltage source feeding the capacitance plates. A movable plate according to Figure in the below
is subjected to two forces:
Fz = kz
And

Figure. Plate capacitor with parallel, in-plane electrodes one

electrode movable in the z direction
In an equilibrium state they balance each other:
F = Fz + FPz = 0

The equilibrium state is stable when the total potential energy of the system spring
plus capacitance plus voltage generator has a minimum. The first derivative of the force
should be negative:
F V2
< 0 => 0 A k<0
z (D + z)3
The displacement in the negative z-direction (towards the fixed plate) must be
smaller than D/3 in order to keep the equilibrium point z stable: a stable state exists for:
D
z < zmax =
3

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 The mechanical operating range of the sensor should be much less than the stability
limit:
D
|zop max |
3
We derived:

8kD3
V VPullin =
270 A

1.2.2.2. Pull-in During Switch-on

Neglecting the damping effects and assuming a step-like switch-on process, the
overshoot distance can be found from the fact that, at the overshoot distance, the velocity
EP is zero and, consequently, the accumulated kinetic energy EP is zero. The kinetic energy
is the work performed by the total force, thus:
1
EP = m v 2=0
2
The integration of the forces results in:

AV0 2
zmin (D + zmin ) = 0

However, even if the condition zmin D/3 is also fulfilled, the stability condition
may still be violated due to additional forces caused by external shocks and vibration.

1.3. Tilting-plate Capacitors

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 The plates are usually symmetric with respect to the x-axis, yL(x) = yU(x). The
capacitance of the right plate CT1 is:
L2

CT1 = 20 U ()
L1 + tan

Since the second capacitance plate is stiffly connected to the first one, and since
2 = 1, the second capacitance changes in the opposite direction:
L2

CT2 = 20 U ()
L1 tan

1.3.1. Nonlinear distortions

In MEMS implementations the gap between the movable plate and the fixed
electrode D is much smaller than the lateral dimension L2. Consequently, the maximum
tilting angle max is very small:

Owing to the pull-in effect, typical values for capacitive sensors are in the range of
milli-degrees and less. Thus, the actual capacitance changes can be calculated assuming:
|x|
For rectangular plates with areas (L2 L1)B the sensitivities are:

(1)k 1 k+1
STk = 0 B
k + 1 max k+1

is the length ratio, = L1/L2. The corresponding relative distortions:

STk
=
ST1
Reach their theoretical maximum for = 1:
1
= ( )
2

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1.3.2. Instabilities Of a Singular Tilting Plate
The stability condition can be represented as:

The shape of the trapezoidal plates is here determined by boundaries orientated

radially with respect to the pivotal point, whereby the radial edges enclose an angle of 900

1.3.3. Instabilities Of The Tilting Capacitance Pair

The plate pair is then subject to the total moment:

MBP
The spring rate is easily derived from k BP = , yielding:

For small angles the spring rate is approximated by:

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1.3.4. Spring Softening
Since k BP < 0 and the total spring rate k = k + k BP of the suspended plate
pair is smaller than k and the resulting suspension is softer than in the absence of
electrostatic forces.
The frequency of the system is:

In the case of high-frequency, harmonic sensing the AC voltage is not constant

but a high-frequency sinusoidal function VAC = V0 sin(t). The expression:

Contains a high-frequency component. Usually the mechanical system is

designed not to respond to such high-frequency excitations.

1.3.5. Stability Limits

For the plate pair there are two stability limits: one on the right side and one on
the left. When these limits are exceeded, the right or left plate will be pulled in and will
contact the substrate. Since different voltages may be applied to the right and the left
plate, pull-in will occur on the side with the higher voltage.
The total moment is balanced by the torque k :

Here 2 = 2 2 /1 2 is the squared ratio of the driving voltages. The stability

regime is determined as above by the negative slope of the total torque:

If equal absolute voltages are applied, then 2 = 1, can be found analytically:

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 Otherwise, the corresponding slopes of the moments obey the equations:

Consequently, as long as 2 2 2 < , the equilibrium point 1 = 0 is stable and

the points 2,3 are unstable.
In a crude approximation, the equilibrium point 1 can be determined by:

The moments slope is calculated to the same level of accuracy:

If the system has been stable for 1 2 = 2 2 and V1 is kept constant while V2 is
decreased, then the denominator remains positive since 2 1. In this case the stability
criterion M/| 1 < 0 can be simplified to:

It is sufficient to investigate the stability limit pull-in only for 0 < 2 < 1
(corresponding to V22 < V12), because for 2 > 1 the absolute value of the corresponding
pull-in angle is the same as for 1/2, but with opposite sign. In other words, for V22 < V12
the right side of the tilting plate pair is going to collapse, whereas for V22 > V12 the left
plate loses stability for angles outside the stability region.

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1.4. Comb Capacitors
1.4.1. Unidirectional linear combs

The total capacitance of the comb is:

Where: N is the number of fingers in the movable half-comb. The number of

fingers in the fixed half-comb is usually N + 1.

1.4.1.1. Forces in unidirectional combs

The force vector acting on the movable comb is given by:

The movable half-comb is subject to the sum of the spring force Fx = kxx and the
electrostatic force FCx in the x direction, which balance each other at the equilibrium point
x is:

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 H = H0 f(z) and Y = Y0 + y are the actual overlapping dimensions. Stability holds
for Fx /x < 0, or, in more detail, for:

As in the case of tilting plates in the previous paragraph, the first equilibrium point
is x = 0, which is stable for:

1.4.1.2. Driving Forces

At the stable equilibrium point x = 0, the force in the y-direction, acting on the
movable half-comb is:

And It is the the voltage-to-force gain of the driving comb.

1.4.1.3. Out-Of-Plane Forces

The force in the z-direction:

It is balanced by the spring force of the comb and does not cause any instability.
The stability condition Fz /z < 0 or:

is always satisfied because, in accordance with the properties of the function f(z)
introduced above, the relation 2f(z)/z2 > 0 holds for all z.

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1.4.2. Bidirectional Actuation

1.4.2.1. The Spring Matrix Of A Bidirectional Comb

If the two identical linear combs with capacitances

are driven by two different voltages V1 = VDC + VAC and V2 = VDC VAC, the
resulting force of the balanced comb can be represented as:

The spring-rate matrix ki,j = FBCi/xj becomes:

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1.4.2.2. The Driving Force Of A Bidirectional Comb
The desired driving force in the y-direction depends linearly on the excitation
voltage VAC:

The voltage-to-force gain is now independent of the applied driving function VAC

1.4.3. Radial Combs

1
The capacitance of one comb rotated from the zero position by an angle < 2 is:

Where: CCR0 is the comb capacitance in the zero position.

Since the fingers are positioned equidistantly as shown in Fig. 2.22

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 And one obtains:

Where: Ravg is the average distance between fingers and pivot.

The torque M generated about the z-axis is:

The Driving moment:

Which for VAC = Vsin(t) is a clean sinusoidal excitation.

1.4.4. Frame-Based Capacitors

If the deflection of the frame from the zero position upwards in Fig. 2.24(a) is x,
then the capacitances CF1,2 between frame and upper fixed electrodes and between frame
and lower fixed electrodes, respectively, are:

Which: L is the length of the fixed, vertical electrode plates.

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 The total force of both capacitances is:

The stability considerations are:

2. A Capacitive Accelerometer
2.1. Fundamentals of Quasi-static Accelerometers
We consider the spring-mass-dashpot system in an accelerometer. This figure
describe that system

While F is external force and Fm represents the equivalent force noise, m is the
proof mass and k is the spring constant. The velocity response is

0
The resonant frequency 0 = and a quality factor = . Therefore, one

designs the accelerometer to have a resonant frequency much larger than the expected
maximum frequency component of the acceleration signal. The resulting force-
displacement characteristic due to a quasi-static is
+
= = 2 ( = , 0)
0
The displacement depends only on the resonant frequency and is not affected by
the choice of a large mass and stiff spring. And noise due to damping and Johnson noise
in a resistor is 4 in a 1 Hz noise bandwidth. The net resulting acceleration noise is

4 0
, =

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 Therefore, we should be possible to achieve huge signal-to-noise ratios and need
to build additional stiffness into the structure to prevent either sticking of parts during
fabrication or excess fragility.

2.2. Position Measurement With Capacitance

There are many methods of direct position measurement, for example capacitance
change, inductance change, optical methods, and scanning-probe tips. Of these,
capacitance change is the most widely used in microaccelerometers. There are several
types of capacitors for capacitance measurement: parallel, interdigital or Fringing. And
the differential capacitors is used for position sensing.

Motion of the moveable component in the

indicated direction increases one capacitance and
decreases the other. This help to measure more
exactly the displacement in an accelerometer.

2.3. A Complete Capacitance

Measurement System
This Figure for differential capacitance measurement with a signal source, a
unity-gain inverter, an amplifier, a synchronous demodulator and a low-pass filter.

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The amplifier if A is the open-loop gain of the op-amp ( = + ) and K is the

feedback factor, A is the closed-loop gain is

=
1 + .
The Synchronous demodulator is a circuit for multiple 2 analog signals, they need
the same frequency (the modulated carrier). For example 1 = () and 2 =
( + )
()
[() cos ][ cos( + )] = [cos + cos(2 + )]
2

The low-pass filter is a circuit filter that passes signals with a frequency lower
than a certain cutoff frequency and attenuates signals with frequency higher than the
cutoff frequency.

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2.4. Some of Circuits for Capacitance Measurement
2.4.1. Track-And-Hold Circuit
In addition, sample and hold circuits are often used when multiple samples need
to be measured at the same time.

()
With a parasitic capacitance 0. When 2 is on, 0 = , CT is charged to

the value through transistor T4. When 1 is on, CT is disconnected, and hence holds the
previous value of V0. Once 2 turns on again, the 2 output is updated to a new value of
()
. Thus the output is a stair-step waveform that follows samples of (), one

sample per clock cycle.

2.4.2. Chopper-Stabilized Amplifiers Circuit

Chopper-Stabilized amplifiers have the additional benefit of cancelling out the
1
low-frequency amplifier noise that appears in the difference between + and and
slow enough not change value during one clock cycle. However, the system pass any
noise on the incoming signal.

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 The voltage at V0 is given by
(1 + 2 )
0 = ( 2 )
1 + 1 + 2 +
Where A is the open-loop gain of the op-amp and + is the voltage at the non-
inverting input of the op-amp. In the limit of large A, this reduces to the familiar non-
+
inverting gain 1 2.+ is 1 during the 1 phase and + is + 1 .
1

2.4.3. Correlated Double Sampling Circuit

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It is a second method for offset cancellation (cancellation of low-frequency
amplifier noise).

When 1 is on, the sensor capacitances 1 and 2 and the feedback capacitance
have all their terminals grounded. The output voltage for the 1 phase is

This value is stored on capacitor . And when 2 is on, the output is

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 1 2 1 1 + 2
0,2 = + (1 + ) 0,1 ; 1
1
The net result is a reduction in the effect of offset 1 by a factor of order
1 2 and offset 2 by a factor of order 1 . Both the chopper stabilized amplifier and
correlated double sampling circuits are readily integrated into CMOS processes designed
for analog circuit implementation.

2.5. Signal-to-Noise Issues

The larger the voltage that is used in any capacitance measurement, the larger the
signal. And the actuating force is proportional to the applied voltage and the gradient
term /. This gradient term determines the sensitivity of the capacitive sensor.
In the previous examples, the capacitors are connected directly to voltage sources
and resulting the noise that will be at least /. Another noise appears in the internal
transistor and affect desired signal.

**** The End ****

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