Martin Kucera

Characterization of a roof tile-shaped out-of-plane vibrational mode in aluminum-nitride-actuated self-sensing micro-resonators for liquid monitoring purposes

This Letter reports on an advanced out-of-plane bending mode for aluminum-nitride (AlN)-actuated cantilevers. Devices of different thickness were fabricated and characterized by optical and electrical measurements in air and liquid media having viscosities up to 615 cP and compared to the classical out-of-plane bending and torsional modes. Finite element method eigenmode analyses were performed showing excellent agreement with the measured mode shapes and resonance frequencies. Quality factors (Q-factor) and the electrical behavior were evaluated as a function of the cantilever thickness. A very high Q-factor of about 197 was achieved in deionized water at a low resonance frequency of 336 kHz, being up to now, the highest quality factor reported for cantilever sensors in liquid media. Compared to the quality factor of the common fundamental out-of-plane bending mode, a 5 times higher Q-factor was achieved. Furthermore, the strain related conductance peak of the roof tile-shaped mode is superior. Compared ...

In vivo tear film thickness measurement and tear film dynamics visualization using spectral domain optical coherence tomography.

Dry eye syndrome is a highly prevalent disease of the ocular surface characterized by an instability of the tear film. Traditional methods used for the evaluation of tear film stability are invasive or show limited repeatability. Here we propose a new non-invasive fully automated approach to measure tear film thickness based on spectral domain optical coherence tomography and on an efficient delay estimator. Silicon wafer phantom were used to validate the thickness measurement. The technique was applied in vivo in healthy subjects. Series of tear film thickness maps were generated, allowing for the visualization of tear film dynamics. Our results show that the in vivo central tear film thickness measurements are precise and repeatable with a coefficient of variation of about 0.65% and that repeatable tear film dynamics can be observed. The presented approach could be used in clinical setting to study patients with dry eye disease and monitor their treatments.

Q-factor enhancement for self-actuated self-sensing piezoelectric MEMS resonators applying a lock-in driven feedback loop

This paper presents a robust Q-control approach based on an all-electrical feedback loop enhancing the quality factor of a resonant microstructure by using the self-sensing capability of a piezoelectric thin film actuator made of aluminium nitride. A lock-in amplifier is used to extract the feedback signal which is proportional to the piezoelectric current. The measured real part is used to replace the originally low-quality and noisy feedback signal to modulate the driving voltage of the piezoelectric thin-film actuator. Since the lock-in amplifier reduces the noise in the feedback signal substantially, the proposed enhancement loop avoids the disadvantage of a constant signal-to-noise ratio, which an analogue feedback circuit usually suffers from. The quality factor was increased from the intrinsic value of 1766 to a maximum of 34?840 in air. These promising results facilitate precise measurements for self-actuated and self-sensing MEMS cantilevers even when operated in static viscous media.

Design and characterization of AlN-based in-plane microplate resonators

In this paper, a design procedure to perform an efficient actuation of in-plane modes in piezoelectric resonators is presented. This procedure is applied to different microplate structures, paying attention to two in-plane mode families: contour modes and flexure-actuated modes. A representative set of devices from both families were used as illustrative examples. These devices were characterized electrically by measuring the impedance and their in-plane modal shapes were measured with a novel technique based on speckle-pattern interferometry. Figures of merit such as the quality factor or the motional resistance were obtained and used to evaluate the different design approaches.

Viscous and acoustic losses in length-extensional microplate resonators in liquid media

Damping mechanisms in the length-extensional mode of rectangular, mid-point supported microplate resonators immersed in liquid are studied. Piezoelectrically excited structures with different lengths and thicknesses were designed, fabricated, and characterized both optically and electrically in isopropanol. The experimental quality factors were compared to the results of Finite Element Method (FEM) simulations and the two main mechanisms of losses, i.e., acoustic and viscous losses, were identified. Analytical models for those two mechanisms are presented and the effects of the geometry on the in-liquid performance of the resonators are discussed. By applying these models, we found that for a given thickness, a maximum quality factor is reached at a critical length, resulting from the balance between acoustic and viscous losses. To further increase quality factors, a quarter wavelength fluid cavity was implemented, thereby reducing acoustic losses; an increase over 40% in the quality factor was predicted ...

Temperature dependent performance of piezoelectric MEMS resonators for viscosity and density determination of liquids

It is the objective of this paper to report on the performance of piezoelectric MEMS resonators for viscosity and density measurements at elevated temperatures. A custom-built temperature controlled measurement setup is designed for fluid temperatures up to 100 °C. Piezoelectric single-side clamped resonators are fabricated, excited in 2nd order of the roof tile-shaped mode (13-mode) and exposed to several liquids (i.e. D5, N10, N35, PAO8, olive oil, ester oil and N100). At the next step, these results are analysed applying a straightforward evaluation model, thus demonstrating that with piezoelectric MEMS resonators the density (i.e. from kg m−3 to kg m−3) and viscosity (i.e. from mPa s to mPa s) values of liquids can be precisely determined in a wide range. Compared to standard measurement techniques, the results show for the first parameter a mean deviation of about 1.04% at 100 °C for all the liquids investigated. For the second parameter, the standard evaluation model implies a systematic deviation in viscosity with respect to the calibration being N35 in this study. This inherent lack of strength has a significant influence on the accuracy, especially at 100 °C due to fluids having a viscosity reduced by a factor of 30 for N100 compared to room temperature. This leads to relative deviations of about 23% at 100 °C and indicates the limits of the evaluation model.

Piezoelectric MEMS resonators for density and viscosity sensing in engine oil with diesel fuel

This work demonstrates the potential of AlN-based resonators as on-line sensors for monitoring lubricant oil dilution with diesel. Two devices are compared, one actuated in the first extensional in-plane mode and the other in an out-of-plane mode (14-mode). Both devices are designed to feature high quality factor in liquid, and allow discriminating variations in density or viscosity in the medium. Sensor resolutions for these two variables are compared in lubricant oil SAE 2.5W, and the device with the best result (14-mode) was also tested in continuous-flow measurements, showing a resolution of 0.5 ppm of diesel contamination in this oil.

Out-of-plane piezoelectric microresonator and oscillator circuit for monitoring engine oil contamination with diesel

Real-time monitoring of the physical properties of liquids is an important subject in the automotive industry. Contamination of lubricating oil by diesel soot has a significant impact on engine wear. Resonant microstructures are regarded to be a precise and compact solution for tracking the viscosity and density of lubricant oils. Since the measurement of pure shear forces do not allow an independent determination of the density and viscosity, two out-of-plane modes for the monitoring of oil dilution with diesel have been selected. The first one (12-mode) is working at 51 kHz and the second mode (14-mode) at 340 kHz. Two parameters were measured: the quality factor and the resonance frequency from which the viscosity and density of the fluids under test can be determined, requiring only a small amount of test liquid. A PLL-based oscillator circuit was implemented based on each resonator. Our results demonstrate the performance of the resonator in oils with viscosity up to 90 mPa·s. The quality factor measured at 25°C was 7 for the 12-mode and 19 for the 14-mode. A better resolution in density and viscosity was obtained for the 14-mode, showing a resolution of 3.92·10-5 g/ml for the density and 1.27·10-1 mPa·s for the viscosity, in pure lubricant oil SAE 0W30. An alternative tracking system, based on a discrete oscillator circuit, was tested with the same resonator, showing a comparable stability and supporting our approach.

Piezoelectric response optimization of multi roof tile-shaped modes in MEMS resonators by variation of the support boundary conditions

This paper investigates strain-related conductance peaks ΔG of advanced roof tile-shaped vibration-modes in piezoelectrically actuated resonators by variation of the support boundary conditions, leading to a complete new class of liquid monitoring sensors. These new vibration-modes feature very high Q-factors in liquid media and enhanced volume-strain values in the device. Combined with an optimized electrode design, the enhanced volume-strain results in very high strain-related conductance peaks ΔG. Furthermore, the impact on the piezoelectric response ΔG/Q is studied, leading to an increased ΔG/Q ratio by ~25% compared to single-side clamped resonators. These features predestinate this new class of vibration-modes for a large variety of challenging resonator-based sensing applications in liquid media exceeding the overall performance of commonly used out-of-plane vibration-modes.

Multi roof tile-shaped vibration modes in mems cantilever sensors for liquid monitoring purposes

We realized piezoelectrically self-actuated self-sensing cantilever sensors for liquid monitoring purposes excited in higher orders of the roof tile-shaped mode. This advanced class of vibration mode supports very high Q-factors in liquid media and high volume strain values which result in combination with an optimized electrode design in enhanced strain related conductance peaks. Therefore, precise fluid property measurements even for highly viscous liquids like D500 (~ 430 cP) are feasible.