Comparison of piezoresistive and capacitive ultrasonic transducers

MEMS ultrasonic transducers for flaw detection have heretofore been built as capacitive diaphragm-type devices. A diaphragm forms a moveable electrode, placed at a short gap from a stationary electrode, and diaphragm movement has been detected by capacitance change. Although several research teams have successfully demonstrated that technology, the detection of capacitance change is adversely affected by stray and parasitic capacitances, limiting the sensitivity of such transducers and typically requiring relatively large diaphragm areas. We describe the design and fabrication of what to our knowledge is the first CMOS-MEMS ultrasonic phased array transducer using piezoresistive strain sensing. Piezoresistors have been patterned within the diaphragms, and diaphragm movement creates bending strain which is detected by a bridge circuit, for which conductor losses will be less significant. The prospective advantage of such piezoresistive transducers is that sufficient sensitivity may be achieved with very small diaphragms. We compare transducer response under fluid-coupled ultrasonic excitation and report the experimental gauge factor for the piezoresistors. We also discuss the phased array performance of the transducer in sensing the direction of an incoming wave.