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MEMS capacitive flow sensor for natural gas pipelines
- Source :
- Sensors and Actuators A: Physical. 231:28-34
- Publication Year :
- 2015
- Publisher :
- Elsevier BV, 2015.
-
Abstract
- This paper presents the design, fabrication, and experimental results of an in-plane MEMS capacitive flow sensor that uses the displacement of a micro-fabricated paddle caused by dynamic gas pressure for measuring the velocity of the flow of surrounding gas. The fabrication process is simple; the prototype is fabricated on 100-μm device Silicon-On-Insulator wafers using only three photo-lithographic mask layers. The device area is 5.5 mm by 5.5 mm. A comb-drive capacitance is used as the transducer for the flow sensor. Measurements show that the output capacitance C is a quadratic function of the gas velocity v , C = k1 v 2 + k2 v + Cp, where k1 = −8.5 fF/(m/s)2, k2 = 73.6 fF/(m/s) and Cp = 16 pF. The advantage of using a capacitive sensing mechanism is that it is virtually insensitive to changes in ambient temperature. Experimental results show that the output capacitance changed only slightly, about 0.21–0.34%, when the temperature changed from 23 °C to 43 °C. Simplicity of fabrication, combined with insensitivity to variations in ambient temperature makes this sensor ideal for widespread deployment to monitor the flow in natural gas pipelines.
- Subjects :
- Microelectromechanical systems
Engineering
Fabrication
business.industry
Capacitive sensing
Flow (psychology)
Metals and Alloys
Electrical engineering
Condensed Matter Physics
Capacitance
Surfaces, Coatings and Films
Electronic, Optical and Magnetic Materials
Transducer
Drag
Optoelectronics
Wafer
Electrical and Electronic Engineering
business
Instrumentation
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 09244247
- Volume :
- 231
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Sensors and Actuators A: Physical
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi...........64e8198f18f245a121a624e0ac067c99