In this paper, recent efforts conducted to investigate the dynamic behavior of a pressure sensor diaphragm coupled with a cylindrical air-backed cavity are presented. Our study shows that a careful consideration of the coupling effect between the plate and the air-backed cavity is necessary to determine the design parameters of a pressure sensor, such as sensitivity and bandwidth. In the case of strong coupling, based on linear analysis of the coupled system, the model of the diaphragm center displacement and natural frequencies are found to be significantly different from the corresponding quantities obtained for a pure plate model. These analyses and results are expected to be valuable for carrying out the design of small pressure sensors (e.g., MEMS pressure sensors) for various applications.

Date Published: 27 March 2006
PDF: 11 pages
Proc. SPIE 6166, Smart Structures and Materials 2006: Modeling, Signal Processing, and Control, 616614 (27 March 2006); doi: 10.1117/12.657999

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 6166:
Smart Structures and Materials 2006: Modeling, Signal Processing, and Control
Douglas K. Lindner, Editor(s)