Design and Testing of a SOI Electric-field Microsensor

A novel and high-performance electric field microsensor is presented based on Silicon-On-Insulator (SOI) fabrication technology. In order to improve the sensitivity and SNR (Signal to Noise Ratio) of the sensor, the unique design of the shutter covering the side wall of the sensing electrodes is used, which reduces the effect of fringing fields of the shutter. Moreover, the electrode structure parameters of the sensor are optimized by Finite Element Simulation (FES). It is found that the new sensor had a resolution of 50 V/m at atmospheric pressure, a uncertainty of better than 2% in a electric field range of 0～50 kV/m.