Development of a high sensitive MEMS hydrophone using PVDF
Vijay K. Varadan, Bei Zhu, K. Alfoni Jose · The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America · 2002
The design and experimental evaluation of a PVDF-based MEMS hydrophone is presented in this paper. The basic structure of the hydrophone was fabricated on a silicon wafer using standard NMOS process technology. A MOSFET with extended gate electrode was designed as the interface circuit to the sensing material, which is a piezoelectric polymer, polyvinylidene difluoride (PVDF). Acoustic impedance possessed by this piezoelectric material provides a reasonable match to water, which makes it very attractive for underwater applications. The electrical signal generated by the PVDF film was directly coupled to the gate of the MOSFET. To minimize the parasitic capacitance underneath the PVDF film and hence improve the device sensitivity, a thick photoresist was first employed as the dielectric layer under the extended gate electrode. For underwater operation, a waterproof Rho-C rubber encapsulated the hydrophone. A silicon nitride layer passivated the active device, which is a good barrier material to most mobile ions and solvents. The device after passivation also shows a lower noise level. The theoretical model developed to predict the sensitivity of the hydrophone shows a reasonable agreement between the theory and the experiment.