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5 Journal of Electrostatics 51}52 (2001) 515}521
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10 A micro-aperture electrostatic "eld mill based on
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12 MEMS technology夽
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14 Mark N. Horenstein*, Patrick R. Stone
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Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Boston University, 8 Saint Mary's Street, Boston,
16 MA 02215-2451, USA
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18
19 Abstract
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21 A miniature electrostatic "eld mill has been constructed using a silicon surface micromachin-
22 ing MEMS fabrication process. A moving shuttle with a viewing aperture of 10
m period-
23 ically exposes and covers a charge sensing electrode, thus allowing the latter to measure
electrostatic "eld magnitudes. A signal output on the order of 40 nV per V/m of measured "eld is
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reported. Electrostatic force is produced by interdigitated comb drives. Mechanical restoring
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force is produced by a folded beam suspension system. Techniques for reducing unwanted
26 coupling of drive signals are discussed.  2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.
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28 Keywords: Electrostatic "eld measurements; Micro-electromechanics; MEMS; Resonant comb drive; Field
29 meter; Field mill
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33 1. Introduction
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35 Electrostatic "eld measurement has been the subject of much research over the past
36 half century. Although numerous devices have been developed, including force sensors
37 [1], high-impedance solid state sensors [2,3] and "eld-coupled MOS devices [4], the
38 most prevalent device has been the variable capacitance "eld mill. Whereas capaci-
39 tively coupled solid state sensors are subject to drift, "eld mills have superior
40 long-term stability [5,6].
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44 夽
This paper also was presented at the 4th Joint Symposium on Electrostatics, IEJ/ESA, Kyoto, Japan
45 September 25}26, 2000.
46 * Corresponding author. Tel.: #1-617-353-9052; fax: #1-617-353-0259.
47 E-mail address: mnh@bu.edu (M.N. Horenstein).

0304-3886/01/$ - see front matter  2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.
PII: S 0 3 0 4 - 3 8 8 6 ( 0 1 ) 0 0 0 4 8 - 1
 516 M.N. Horenstein, P.R. Stone / Journal of Electrostatics 51}52 (2001) 515}521

1 Field mills of many di!erent types may be found in use today. The rotating vane
2 type [6}9] has become the instrument of choice in much of atmospheric science
3 [10}12] and electric power systems [13,14], while the vibrating reed type is used in the
4 probe heads of non-contacting voltmeters and "eldmeters of the Monroe2+ and
5 Trek2+ types. One researcher reports the use of a vibrating wire "eld mill in atmo-
6 spheric experiments [15]. The basic operating principle of the "eld mill is described in
7 several references [6}9].
8 When the electric "eld has "ne spatial detail, a sense electrode of small aperture area
9 is essential for adequate spatial resolution. This paper describes a micro-
10 electromechanical (MEMS) "eld mill made from two surface micro-machined
11 polysilicon thin "lm layers deposited over a silicon substrate. A resonant comb drive
12 provides mechanical motion, and "eld sensing occurs through a 10
m;10
m
13 aperture that periodically exposes and covers an underlying charge sense electrode.
14 A schematic view of the "eld mill is shown in Fig. 1. A high resolution photograph of
15 the device is shown in Fig. 2. Wire bond pads leading to external connections are not
16 shown.
17 The core of the "eld mill is its central moving shuttle mass which has sets of comb
18 "ngers attached to either side. The shuttle is supported by two sets of thin folded
19 beams that are connected to the ground plane only at two points, called anchors. This
20 construction allows the shuttle to move in the x-direction (from side to side) only. Two
21 sets of stationary comb "ngers, insulated from ground, intermesh with the "ngers of
22 the shuttle mass. A voltage applied to one set of stationary comb "ngers causes the
23 shuttle to move to the side, as in Fig. 3(a). Applying the same voltage to the opposite
24 set of comb "ngers causes the shuttle to move to the other side, as in Fig. 3(b).
25 An aperture in the middle of the shuttle mass exposes a 5
m;10
m portion of a
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45 Fig. 1. Schematic view of MEMS "eld mill.
 M.N. Horenstein, P.R. Stone / Journal of Electrostatics 51}52 (2001) 515}521 517

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Fig. 2. Microscope view of MEMS "eld mill. Left: shuttle mass, comb drives, and folded beams. Right:
15 closeup view of 100
m aperture and sense electrode.
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Fig. 3. Transverse motion of the shuttle alternately: (a) covers and (b) exposes the sense electrode.
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33 10
m ; 80
m underlying sense electrode when the shuttle is at rest. As the shuttle
34 moves from side to side, its 10
m;10
m aperture alternately exposes and covers
35 a 10
m;10
m portion of the sense electrode.
36
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38 2. Mechanical considerations
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40 The magnitude of the x-directed electrostatic force exerted by the interlaced comb
41 drives can be estimated from the relation F "dW/dx [16], where W"CV/2 is the
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stored capacitive energy, and C is the total inter-"nger capacitance. If fringing "elds
43 are neglected, the value of C can be estimated from the equation:
44
45 C
2n
(x #x)/g. (1)

 518 M.N. Horenstein, P.R. Stone / Journal of Electrostatics 51}52 (2001) 515}521

1 Here, x is the zero-voltage overlap length of the comb "ngers,  is their vertical

2 thickness, g the inter-"nger gap spacing, and n the number of "ngers. A factor of 2 is
3 needed because both faces of a given "nger contribute to the total capacitance. The
4 derivative of Eq. (1) with respect to x results in
5
F "n
</g. (2)
6 
7 For small displacements, the mechanical restoring force of the folded beam suspen-
8 sion can be expressed by F "!kx, where the sti!ness factor k is given by [17]

9 k"m3Ew/12l. (3)
10

11 Here, m"8 is the number of individual beam lengths in the folded-beam suspension
12 system, w the beam width, l the beam length, E is Young's modulus for polysilicon,


13 and w/12 l is the moment of inertia of the cross-section of each beam. The shuttle


14 can be driven to mechanical resonance by applying two sinusoidal voltages, di!ering
15 in phase by 903, to the left and right stationary comb "nger sets. Note that 903 phase
16 shifts are required, rather than 1803 phase shifts, because the electrostatic force
17 responds to the square of the voltage. If the shuttle has mass M, its vibrational
18 resonant frequency becomes
19

1 k
20 f" . (4)
2 M
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22 The various parameters of our "eld mill are listed in Table 1. The resonant frequency
23 predicted by Eq. (4) is 11 kHz, and the measured resonant frequency is 7.6 kHz. This
24 discrepancy may be due to variations in fabrication parameters as well as the e!ects of
25 moving air mass common to MEMS devices.
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28 Table 1
Parameters of micro-aperture "eld mill of Fig. 2
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30 Symbol Parameter Value
31
32 e Young's modulus for polysilicon 160 GPa
33  density of polysilicon 2.2 g/cm
 thickness of polysilicon layer 2
m
34
g air gap between comb "ngers 2
m
35 w comb "nger width 3
m

36 w folded beam width 2
m


37 L folded beam length 220
m
38 N number of comb "ngers 32
A area of moving aperture 10
m;10
m
39 
a shuttle mass width 80
m
40 b shuttle mass height 120
m
41 M shuttle mass 1;10\ kg
42 k calculated spring constant 0.48 N/m
43 f calculated resonant frequency 11.0 kHz
i predicted peak current per kV/cm 1.0;10\ A
44  
V magnitude of comb drive voltages 60 V
45
 M.N. Horenstein, P.R. Stone / Journal of Electrostatics 51}52 (2001) 515}521 519

1 3. Design considerations
2
3 Resonant electrostatic comb drives have been the subject of numerous studies in the
4 MEMS community. In fact, several of the dimensions reported in Table 1 were taken
5 from publicly available design libraries. If the structure is to operate as an electrostatic
6 "eld mill, however, several additional design issues must be addressed. Most classical
7 "eld mills induce motion via magnetic transducers that produce only small electric
8 "elds compared to the measured electrostatic "eld. In contrast, the device of Fig. 1
9 uses large electrostatic "elds, comparable to or greater than the measured "eld, to
10 move the shuttle mass. In our device, unwanted coupling between the drive voltages
11 and the sense electrode is minimized in several ways. First, the surface-deposited
12 polysilicon wire leading to the sense electrode is shielded by an overlying polysilicon
13 shield where the wire passes beneath the energized comb drive. Second, the sense
14 electrode wirebond pad is partially shielded by additional ground paths and bond
15 wires. Finally, the stationary comb drives are split into upper and lower sets, as
16 depicted for one side of the shuttle in Fig. 4. These split comb halves are driven by
17 separate, 1803 phase-shifted sinusoidal voltages. Since the electrostatic force varies as
18 the square of the applied voltage, the net force exerted is the same as that generated
19 were in-phase voltages to be applied. The unwanted signal coupling, however, is
20 dramatically reduced because the capacitively-induced signals cancel each other. Note
21 that the electrostriction force is attractive for both the positive and negative halves of
22 the waveform, hence the sinusoidal drive voltages are set to 3.8 kHz, half the mechan-
23 ical resonant frequency of 7.6 kHz.
24 Even when 1803 phase-shifted drive voltages are used, some 3.8-kHz drive voltage
25 will still couple to the sense electrode. As shown in Fig. 5, unwanted drive signals are
26 further reduced in our system by careful "ltering. The "rst stage, a current-to-voltage
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45 Fig. 4. Stationary comb "ngers split into two sections (only left-hand side is shown).
 520 M.N. Horenstein, P.R. Stone / Journal of Electrostatics 51}52 (2001) 515}521

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10 Fig. 5. Electronic circuits used to drive and process the signal from the MEMS "eld mill.
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13 converter, feeds a twelve-pole high-pass Chebyshev "lter with a 7-kHz corner fre-
14 quency and a reduction of !80 dB at 3.8 kHz. The last stage is a synchronous
15 detection circuit [18] consisting of a 7.6-kHz synchronous switch and 12th-order,
16 14-Hz, low-pass Butterworth "lter. This last stage extracts the desired 7.6-kHz signal
17 component while dramatically reducing the unwanted 3.8-kHz component. The
18 overall gain of the system at 7.6 kHz is 3.2. For A "10
m;10
m"10\ m and

19 f"7.6 kHz, the expected sensitivity becomes, for R "500 M,
$
20
< /E "1.6
A R "35 nV per V/m. (5)
21 -32    $
22
23 4. Experimental results
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25 The device was tested by positioning a conducting plate over the "eld mill at
26 1-mm spacing. Field-producing voltages in the range 0}500 V were applied, yielding
27 incident "elds up to 5;10 V/m, an expected maximum output signal of 18 mV at
28 5;10 V/m, and a measured maximum output signal of 20 mV at this same "eld
29 magnitude.
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32 5. Conclusion
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34 The ability of the micro-aperture "eld mill to measure electrostatic "elds has been
35 demonstrated. Its 10
m;10
m aperture size should be capable of much "ner
36 resolution than that of currently available devices. A sensitivity of about
37 35
V per kV/m has been demonstrated. Future work will include investigations of
38 spatial resolution, improved sensitivity, the e!ects of mechanical orientation, and the
39 application of the device to biological and electromechanical systems.
40
41
42 References
43
44 [1] B.R. Nyberg, K. Herstad, K.B. Larsen, T. Hansen, Measuring electric "elds by using pressure sensitive
45 elements, IEEE Trans. Electr. Insul. EI-14 (1979) 250}255.
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1 [2] J.B. McCaslin, Electrometer for ionization chamber using metal-oxide semiconductor "eld e!ect
2 transistor, Rev. Sci. Instrum. 35 (11) (1964) 1587.
3 [3] V.C. Negro, M.E. Cassidy, R.T. Groves, A guarded insulating gate "eld e!ect transistor electrometer,
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25 [16] H.H. Woodson, J.R. Melcher, Electromechanical Dynamics, Wiley, New York, 1968.
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28 Philadelphia, PA, 1989, p. 225.