PIEZORESISTIVE PRESSURE SENSOR DESIGN, SIMULATION AND MODIFICATION USING COVENTORWARE SOFTWARE

This research is undertaken for Piezoresistive (PZR) Pressure Sensor Design,
Simulation and Modification using Coventorware Software. The main objective of
the project is to design the sensor using the Coventorware. The pressure sensor is one
of the micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) devices. It uses the piezoresistive
effect as the detection mechanism. The circuit used to arrange the implanted
piezoresistor is the Wheatstone bridge that usually measures the small resistance
change. The methodology of the project is the theory and the parameter study of the
pressure sensor. The author used the Coventorware to design and simulate the sensor.
After the design and modeling of the sensor, the simulation and result were obtained.
Modification to improve the pressure sensor's output was then made to the design.
The modification is to add an additional resistor with one resistor in parallel. The
modification resulted in overall resistors implanted is eight from four. The results of
both typical and modified versions of the sensor were obtained by simulations using
architect in Coventorware. The results showed that modified and typical sensor give
similar pattern of output voltage. The dynamic range for the modified sensor is higher
but has low sensitivity.