Design and Fabrication of Micro Hemispheric Shell Resonator with Annular Electrodes

• Main Authors: Renxin Wang, Bing Bai, Hengzhen Feng, Ziming Ren, Huiliang Cao, Chenyang Xue, Binzhen Zhang, Jun Liu
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2016-11-01
• Series: Sensors
• Subjects: hemispheric shell resonator; annular electrodes; glassblowing; equivalent gap distance
• Online Access: http://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/16/12/1991

Electrostatic driving and capacitive detection is widely used in micro hemispheric shell resonators (HSR). The capacitor gap distance is a dominant factor for the initial capacitance, and affects the driving voltage and sensitivity. In order to decrease the equivalent gap distance, a micro HSR with annular electrodes fabricated by a glassblowing method was developed. Central and annular cavities are defined, and then the inside gas drives glass softening and deformation at 770 °C. While the same force is applied, the deformation of the hemispherical shell is about 200 times that of the annular electrodes, illustrating that the deformation of the electrodes will not affect the measurement accuracy. S-shaped patterns on the annular electrodes and internal-gear-like patterns on the hemispherical shell can improve metal malleability and avoid metal cracking during glass expansion. An arched annular electrode and a hemispheric shell are demonstrated. Compared with HSR with a spherical electrode, the applied voltage could be reduced by 29%, and the capacitance could be increased by 39%, according to theoretical and numerical calculation. The surface roughness of glass after glassblowing was favorable (Rq = 0.296 nm, Ra = 0.217 nm). In brief, micro HSR with an annular electrode was fabricated, and its superiority was preliminarily confirmed.