Camon H., Bounouh A., Blard F., Bélières D.
LAAS/CNRS, FR
In electrical references, if primary references define the international standards, secondary references are the key points for precision measurement or electrical conversion. The principle of secondary AC voltage references based on MEMS using the pull-in voltage have been already reported [1,2] and first experimental realizations have suggested strong potentialities even if the MEMS devices had a big temperature dependence of about 300 ppm/°C [3]. In this paper we bring a clear enhancement of performance. Indeed, the voltage stability of MEMS devices designed to serve as AC voltage standards ranging from 2 V to 14 V has been measured over more than 150 hours with a relative deviation from the mean value not exceeding 1×10-6 (1 standard deviation) at 100 kHz. Moreover, their temperature dependence is ten times smaller than previously reported. In addition, MEMS-based structures are theoretically independent of the frequency of use when working beyond the natural frequency. This frequency stability has been successfully tested between 40 and 350 kHz. These unique results make it possible to use these devices in widespread applications as in electrical metrology and high precision instrumentation.
Journal: TechConnect Briefs
Volume: 2, Nanotechnology 2012: Electronics, Devices, Fabrication, MEMS, Fluidics and Computational (Volume 2)
Published: June 18, 2012
Pages: 145 - 148
Industry sector: Sensors, MEMS, Electronics
Topic: MEMS & NEMS Devices, Modeling & Applications
ISBN: 978-1-4665-6275-2