Silicon Carbide MEMS Capacitive Pressure Sensor for Harsh Environments

In this paper, we investigated a new capacitive pressure sensor structure on a silicon carbide (SiC) platform for high sensitivity and harsh environment operation capability. The superior material properties of SiC ensure robustness of the new sensor to withstand large-scale pressure at high temperature and in chemical/biological medium. The sensor structure consists of a circular SiC diaphragm suspended by four arms over a SiC substrate, with design to enable diaphragm to deflect nearly uniformly with applied pressure. This configuration results in improved sensing properties. With high sensitivity and operation capability in hostile environment, this new pressure sensor is promising for use in a wide range of applications such as automotive, nuclear station, aerospace, and oil/gas exploration, etc.