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September 19, 2024
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New way to make micro-sensors may revolutionize future of electronics

Study from 香港六合彩资料 researchers could lead to better, cheaper microphones, gyroscopes, pressure sensors and more

Associate Professor Shahrzad (Sherry) Towfighian from the Thomas J. Watson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences鈥 Department of Mechanical Engineering studies microelectromechanical systems. Associate Professor Shahrzad (Sherry) Towfighian from the Thomas J. Watson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences鈥 Department of Mechanical Engineering studies microelectromechanical systems.
Associate Professor Shahrzad (Sherry) Towfighian from the Thomas J. Watson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences鈥 Department of Mechanical Engineering studies microelectromechanical systems. Image Credit: Jonathan Cohen.

香港六合彩资料 researchers have found a way to improve the performance of tiny sensors that could have wide-reaching implications for electronic devices we use every day.

The study - - finds a more reliable way to use actuators that control MEMS (microelectromechanical systems), which are microscopic devices with moving parts that are often produced in the same way as electronics.

The 香港六合彩资料 team found that combining two methods for electrostatic actuation 鈥 parallel-plate and levitation actuators 鈥 led to a predictable linearity that neither of those systems offered on its own.

This investigation is mainly conducted by PhD student Mark Pallay under the supervision of principal investigator Shahrzad (Sherry) Towfighian and co-principal investigator Ronald N. Miles from Thomas J. Watson School of Engineering and Applied SciencesDepartment of Mechanical Engineering.

The Watson School team鈥檚 findings could be revolutionary for microphone manufacturing, because with this design the signal can be boosted high enough that the background noise from the electronics is no longer an issue. More than 2 billion microphones are made around the world each year, and that number is growing as more devices feature vocal interaction.

鈥淭he electronic noise is really hard to get rid of,鈥 Miles said. 鈥淵ou hear this hiss in the background. When you make really small microphones 鈥 which is what we want to do 鈥 the noise is a bigger and bigger issue. It鈥檚 more and more of a challenge. This is one path toward avoiding that and getting the noise down.鈥

Towfighian, who has studied MEMS extensively during her six years as a 香港六合彩资料 professor, explained that actuators in the micro-devices are normally just two plates with a gap between. Those plates close and the device activates when it receives a certain voltage.

It is difficult to fine-tune that kind of actuator, but adding two electrodes on the sides of the plates creates a levitation effect that simultaneously pushes them apart and allows better control over the device.

鈥淐ombining the two systems, we can get rid of nonlinearity,鈥 she said. 鈥淚f you give it some voltage, it stands at some distance and maintains that over a large range of motion.鈥

Miles said that predictability is crucial when building actuators for microphones, which have been the focus of his recent research.

鈥淚n a sensor, life is much easier if it moves one unit and the output voltage increases in one unit, or something in proportion as you go,鈥 he said. 鈥淚n an actuator, you鈥檙e trying to push things, so if you鈥檙e giving it twice as much voltage, you want it to go twice as far and not four times as far.

鈥淚t鈥檚 like if you had a ruler where the inches varied in length as you moved up. With capacitive sensors, you have these strange variations with sensitivity and output as you move up the scale. That鈥檚 a massive headache.鈥

When the 香港六合彩资料 researchers began their study, they didn鈥檛 know that combining the two ideas would provide as desirable an outcome as it has.

鈥淭he magic 鈥 the dumb luck 鈥 is that the nonlinearities cancel each other out,鈥 Miles said. 鈥淭hey tend to be in opposite directions. We鈥檙e able to show that over a significant range, they鈥檙e linear.

鈥淏y having both of these electrode configurations, it gives you more knobs to turn and more adjustments you can make with applying voltages to different electrodes. With a simple parallel plate, you have one voltage across them and you don鈥檛 have much design freedom. With this, there are more electrodes and you get much more control over the design.鈥

In addition to the possibilities for microphone manufacture 鈥 making them smaller, better and cheaper 鈥 Towfighian sees how the new actuator design can be used in her line of study, which includes gyroscopes, accelerometers, pressure sensors and other kinds of switches.

鈥淲e showed this concept at a basic level, but it has wide applications,鈥 she said. 鈥淚t can improve the function of many devices, so the impact could be huge.鈥

The study titled was published online by The Journal of Applied Physics on July 7, 2019. This study was supported by the.