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Sensors and Actuators A: Physical

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/sna

Passive single chip wireless microwave pressure sensor

Amr Ibrahim, D.R.S. Cumming ∗
Department of Electronics and Electrical Engineering, University of Glasgow, Rankine Building, Oakfield Avenue, Glasgow G12 8LT, UK

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: A novel micromachined passive wireless pressure sensor is presented. The device consists of a tuned
Received 12 May 2010 circuit operating at 10 GHz fabricated on to a SiO2 membrane, supported on a silicon wafer. A pressure
Received in revised form 7 October 2010 difference across the membrane causes it to deflect so that an antenna circuit detunes. The circuit is
Accepted 31 October 2010
remotely interrogated to read off the sensor data wirelessly. The chip area is 5 mm × 4 mm and the mem-
Available online xxx
brane area is 2 mm2 with a thickness of 4 mm. Two on-chip passive resonant circuits were investigated:
a meandered dipole and a zigzag antenna. Both have a physical length of 4.25 mm. The sensors show a
Keywords:
shift in their resonant frequency in response to changing pressure of 10.28–10.27 GHz for the meandered
Wireless pressure sensor
Resonance frequency
dipole, and 9.61–9.58 GHz for the zigzag antenna. The sensitivities of the meandered dipole and zigzag
Membrane sensors are 12.5 kHz/mbar and 16 kHz/mbar respectively.
Micromachining © 2010 Published by Elsevier B.V.
Zigzag antenna
Meander dipole antenna

1. Introduction tances (typically a few centimeters). Passive systems also require

Wireless pressure sensors are increasingly being used in
many practical applications such as automotive and biomedical
applications [1,2]. Reliable, easy to fabricate, and low cost micro-
electromechanical systems (MEMS) are required as the market
demand increases. Most work on pressure sensors concentrates
on two transduction techniques based on the use of a deformable
membrane: piezoresistive and capacitive sensors. The capacitive
pressure sensor, when compared to the piezoresistive sensor has
higher sensitivity to changes in pressure, lower thermal drift, and
lower noise. Both sensors require read out circuits in close prox-
imity to the sensing element [3], or on a separate chip [4]. Many
applications require that sensors should require little or no power
consumption over extended in-service periods [5]. This is particu-
larly challenging for wireless devices.
Wireless systems can be made to operate either actively or pas-
sively. In an active system, the sensor will be connected to an
electronic circuit that requires power to operate its component
parts. In a passive system, the sensor will be limited to simple com-
ponents such as inductors and capacitors, and will need no power.
Active systems are desirable where communication is needed over
relatively long distances, or sophisticated wireless technology is
required.
Such devices must be either battery operated, or be capable of
power scavenging from a reader device over very short working dis-
∗ Corresponding author. Tel.: +44 0141 5233.
E-mail address: d.cumming@elec.gla.ac.uk (D.R.S. Cumming).
energy from a reader device in order to be read, but the power
levels can be very small. Passive low frequency devices have been
demonstrated based on the use of lumped-element components
(inductors and capacitors) to achieve inductively coupled sensors
for biomedical applications in [6,7], and miniaturization on to single
integrated circuit devices operating at 60–75 MHz, 750–950 MHz,
and 11–13 MHz has also been reported in [8–10].
In this paper we demonstrate an alternative method to using low
frequency inductively coupled devices that is to use of microwave
signals to read the data from a remote sensor that has been specifi-
cally designed to operate at the required frequency. Fig. 1(a) shows
the basic principle of operation in schematic form. The sensor is
composed of a deformable membrane, as is usual, that has a pla-
nar metal antenna fabricated on to its surface extending to the
supporting silicon that surrounds the membrane.
The antenna is designed to have a resonant frequency in the
band of interest. As the membrane is deformed, the antenna expe-
riences a slight change in its physical characteristics, causing the
antenna resonance to shift. The sensor is read by directing a beam
of microwave radiation from, for example, a horn antenna towards
the sensor and recording the reflected spectrum. By this means, the
resonant frequency of the antenna is measured. We have investi-
gated in detail the methods by which such a passive wireless sensor
may be implemented. The design frequency was chosen to be in
the microwave X-band (8–12 GHz) since it is widely used for a
range of microwave technologies including RADAR and telecom-
munications [11]. Furthermore, the wavelength is relatively small
(0 = 30 mm in free space) so that there is the possibility of mak-
ing relatively small single chip devices with appropriate antenna

0924-4247/$ – see front matter © 2010 Published by Elsevier B.V.

doi:10.1016/j.sna.2010.10.020

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Fig. 1. (a) Working principle of proposed sensor and (b) current distribution of a dipole antenna.

design. As a further consideration, the substrate was chosen to be

silicon since it is cheap, widely available, and there are many easy
to use fabrication processes available.
One of the most common types of antenna is the half wavelength
dipole antenna. The amplitude of the current in a dipole antenna
has the profile of a half-cycle of a sine wave, reaching a peak at
the centre, as illustrated in Fig. 1(b), and the length of a simple
dipole from end-to-end is L = 0 /2 where 0 is the wavelength at
the resonant frequency.
A simple half-wave dipole offers a balanced feed but its length
for 10 GHz operation in free space (approximately 15 mm) makes it
unsuitable for integration as a small on-chip sensors. The meander
dipole and zigzag antennas are excellent candidates for investiga-
Fig. 2. A meander dipole antenna.
tion since they allow for miniaturization, low fabrication cost, and
can be excited by single or differential feeds. Integrated log-periodic
zigzag antennas and meander antennas have been demonstrated a (meander pitch). The sensor devices are intended for wireless
on low resistivity silicon substrates and 130 nm CMOS processes operation and interrogation by free-space radiation. However, as
in [12,13], and meander antennas have been shown to work on part of our design and test procedure we desire to be able to make
a suspended, thin, low loss, benzocyclobutene (BCB) membrane prober measurements to a calibrated 50  vector network analyzer.
[14]. We show that these antenna concepts are suitable for making Therefore, as an additional design constraint we require Z0 of the
an integrated microwave readable pressure sensor as a conse- antenna to be 50 . Z0 is given by [15]:
quence of their inherent properties and operation. We further
present detailed design and fabrication methods, and data from ZC 2a
Z0 = log (2)
several micro-machined antennas is analyzed to evaluate sensitiv-  WA
ity to pressure, return loss, impedance bandwidth, and resistivity. The printed antenna had a length of 4.25 mm (<0 /2),
The final devices are compact and can be readily fabricated on a WS = 200 mm, WA = 650 mm, distance between arms DM = 250 mm
5 mm × 4 mm chip for operation at 10 GHz. narrowing to 100 mm between the feed lines, and metal (alu-
minium) thickness of 1 mm. ZC refers to intrinsic impedance of the
2. Antennae design antenna.
Similarly, another method for designing a short-compact dipole
The elementary requirements for the dimensions of a simple antenna is to bend the dipole into a zigzag shape. Such zigzag
dipole antenna may be easily calculated. For a printed dipole on antennas on silicon are very useful for high frequency commu-
the surface of a solid substrate the resonant frequency is given by: nications. The antenna that was studied for this work consists of
300 mm long sections (ls ) laid out as shown in Fig. 3. Additional
c
fc = (1) parameters were the section gaps WZ = 460 mm, and the distance
2L
p
εeff

εeff is the effective dielectric constant of the media surrounding

the dipole, fc is the resonant frequency and c is the speed of light
in vacuo. It is therefore possible to make a dipole antenna with
L < 0 /2 by using εeff > 1. However, another technique for reducing
the length is to meander the branches of the dipole. By introducing
the meander, the inductance of each arm of the dipole antenna is
increased, thus adding to the effective electrical length, L, of the
structure. The total inductance is made up of the sum of the induc-
tances for each meander, as shown in Fig. 2. The input impedance,
Z0 , individual meander inductance, and overall inductance can all
be controlled in the design process by selecting values for the
parameters WS (meander separation), WC (conductor width) and Fig. 3. A zigzag antenna.

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between arms DZ = 470 mm, narrowing to 50 mm between the feed

lines. Additional parameters shown in Fig. 3 are: WB = 100 mm and
WL = 150 mm. Based on previous results obtained for similar anten-
nae on a CMOS chips, the angle between sections was chosen to
be 30◦ [12]. The separation between the feed lines was 50 mm. The
antenna width, WA , was 610 mm and the total length was 4.25 mm,
as for the meander antenna.
For both the meander and zigzag antennae a membrane was
etched into the silicon substrate from behind. In each case the
antenna is part on and part off the membrane as illustrated by the
boxes shown in Figs. 2 and 3. The membrane serves two purposes.
It is necessary for the antenna to be able to flex in response to a
pressure gradient, and by having part of the sensor on the mem-
brane, the losses generated in the silicon substrate are reduced. By
only putting part of the antenna on the membrane the overall dipole
length was reduced. High Frequency Surface Simulator HFSSTM was
used for designing both antennae.

3. Antennae fabrication

Fig. 4 shows the fabrication steps. A 2 mm thick SiO2 layer

was deposited by plasma enhanced chemical vapour deposition
on to a 3 k-cm, 300 mm thick, 4′′ silicon wafer. A double-layer
of polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) electron-beam resist, of low
molecular weight (1.2 mm) followed by high molecular weight
(0.9 mm), was spin-cast on to the chip, and pre-baked at 180 ◦ C for
120 min after each layer. Direct-write electron-beam lithography
using a Vistec VB6 was used to delineate the antenna patterns fol-
lowed by development in 1:1 MIBK:IPA for 60 s at 23 ◦ C. 1 mm of
aluminium was deposited using a sputter coating followed by lift-
off in acetone by soaking for 3 h. Aluminium was chosen as the
antenna material because of its ease of deposition, good conductiv-
ity, and low temperature processing.
After patterning the antennae, the chips were prepared for etch-
ing to form the membrane. The etched area was located behind
the feed points of the antenna in order to minimise the dielectric
losses in this critical section [16]. A thick layer of photoresist was
used to protect the un-etched areas. AZ4562 was spin-cast and
pre-baked at 90 ◦ C and the mask was exposed for 30 s in a Suss
Microtec mask aligner. The resist was developed for 4 min in AZ
400 K. The membrane was then etched using an inductive-coupled
plasma in a STS 100 with C4F8 /SF6 /O2 gases for 68 min at an etch
rate of 4.38 mm/min. The etch depth was 298 mm, thus leaving a
residual support layer under the membrane of 2 mm of silicon to
provide greater strength (devices without this layer broke easily).
Fig. 4. Fabrication process of devices. (a) SiO2 deposition. (b) Double layers of PMMA
coating. (c) Development. (d) Al metallization. (e) Lift-off. (f) AZ4562 coating. (g)
Development. (h) ICP-etching.
The results from etch processing are shown in Fig. 5. The device
wafers are sawn to make 5 mm × 4 mm sensor chips from a final
wafer.
4. Simulation and measurement results
4.1. Probed antennas characteristics and discussions
Several micromachined devices were tested and the char-
acteristic impedance of the antennae at their feed-points was
characterized by making on-wafer measurements to the litho-
graphically defined devices using an Agilent E8362B network
analyzer. The chips were mounted on an absorbing chuck to prevent
reflections from surrounding metal parts. The measurement results
were compared directly with the design simulations as shown in
Figs. 6 and 7 for both the meander and zigzag antenna-based sen-
sors. For comparison we present antenna characteristic for before

Fig. 5. Wafer level fabrication of meander dipole (right) and zigzag antenna (bottom-left). Sensing area is defined by red lines for clarity, and bottom-right SEM micropho-
tograph of etched area of chips. (For interpretation of the references to colour in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.)

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(2010), doi:10.1016/j.sna.2010.10.020
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Fig. 6. Simulated and measurement results for meander dipole antenna. S11 (top)
and antenna response normalized to 50  input impedance.
and after the etching of the membrane. Table 1 summarises the
results at the resonant frequency for the meander dipole and zigzag
antennas.
As was to be expected the results show very strongly the effect
of the presence of the silicon substrate beneath the antenna. Data
from either antenna design prior to etching shows that the reso-
nant frequency is shifted to a lower frequency, consistent with the
presence of a material with a dielectric constant >1 (Eq. (1)). After
the formation of the membrane below the central feed-point of the
antennae the resonant frequency increases considerably by 0.7 GHz
for the meander antenna and 0.4 GHz for the zigzag antenna.
The losses of the antennae are reduced after the etch. This is
again consistent with the removal of a portion of lossy silicon
substrate. The improvement in the loss is 14 dB for the mean-
der antenna and 5 dB for the zigzag device. A change of the order
of 10% in Re[Z0 ] is seen between before and after etching. How-
ever, as expected, the change in Im[Z0 ] is very large, consistent
with the change in the return loss. Final, the band-width of the
antenna, as measured in the frequency response of the character-
istic impedance also improves dramatically after the membrane
has been etched. There is a slight discrepancy between simulated
and measured results that were obtained using a dielectric con-
Table 1
Simulated and Measured results for micromachined antennas.
Parameters
Return loss (dB)
Meander antenna
Simulated on membrane −40.45
Measured prior etching −26.80
Measured on membrane −36.80
Zigzag antenna
Simulated on membrane −37.40
Measured prior etching −22.50
Measured on membrane −27.65
Please cite this article in press as: A. Ibrahim, D.R.S. Cumming, Passive single chip wireless microwave pressure sensor, Sens. Actuators A: Phys.
(2010), doi:10.1016/j.sna.2010.10.020
Fig. 7. Simulated and measurement results for zigzag antenna. S11 (top) and antenna
response normalized to 50  input impedance.
stant for the composite SiO2 /Si membrane of 4.1. The measured
resonant frequencies of the devices differ by 3.5% and 6% for mean-
der and zigzag devices respectively from the simulated results on
membrane. We attribute this discrepancy to a potential variation
between the properties of the aluminium that was sputtered, the
bilayer that forms the membrane and the inconsistency of silicon
wafer resistivity, which varies between 3 and 5 k, and finally dis-
crepancy associated with probes and the surroundings metal parts.
4.2. Probed antenna-pressure measurements
To study the effects of membrane deflection on antennas, a sim-
ple un-calibrated experiment was carried out as shown in Fig. 8(a).
A jet of nitrogen is blown onto the surface of the membrane using
a plastic pipette positioned approximately 1 mm from the surface.
The gas flow-rate is controlled using a regulator connected to a gas
cylinder. The pressure at the output of the regulator is in the range
1.0–1.4 bar. Using this simple method, changes in the resonant fre-
quency of 10.6–10.62 GHz for the meander and 10–10.325 for the
zigzag antennas was achieved. This is due to mechanical changes
in physical dimensions of antennas (WS , WZ ) and gap between feed
lines. As the data in Fig. 8(b and c) shows the meander antenna
fc (GHz) Impedance () −10 dB bandwidth (%)
10.22 50.85 + j 0.435 32.00
9.90 55.95 − j 0.475 43.20
10.60 51.2 + j 0.050 44.50
9.40 51.4 + j 0.10 31.00
9.60 57.35 − j 3.30 48.00
10.00 56.15 + j 0.09 52.00
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Fig. 8. (a) Simple experiment setup. (b) and (c) Resonant frequency shift for the meander dipole antenna. (d) and (e) Resonant frequency shift for the zigzag antenna. The
resonant frequency increases with gas pressure, as indicated by the solid arrows.

shows a continuous shift in the resonant frequency throughout
the experimental pressure range. By contrast, the zigzag antenna
shows a more pronounced shift in the frequency for pressure as gas
flow increases. At higher gas flow there is little further shift in the
frequency (Fig. 8(d and e)).
4.3. Wireless pressure measurements
Calibrated wireless telemetry performance of the sensor’s
behaviour was obtained by monitoring the shift in resonant fre-
quency for both devices in response to an applied pressure using
a microwave reflection experiment. A simple base-station reader
was set up for use in the X-band using a horn antenna as shown
in Fig. 9. The horn was directly connected to the Agilent E8362B
PNA, and the pressure senor to horn antenna distance was 10 cm.
The differential pressure between atmospheric room pressure
(1000 mbar) and the back-side of the membrane was accurately
controlled by mounting the sensor over an aperture on a sealed cop-
per adaptor. The sensor was surrounded by microwave absorbing
foam. The pressure was controlled using a regulator connected to
a nitrogen gas cylinder. The pressure in the adaptor was measured
using a barometric sensor (Campbell Scientific CS100). As can be
seen from the sketch of the experimental configuration, the sensor
membrane is deflected outwards from the chip in this set-up, but it
is expected that similar results would be obtained if a vacuum was
applied behind the membrane and it was deflected inwards.

Fig. 9. (a) The membrane has higher pressure behind the membrane and (b) a sketch of the experimental set up.

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Fig. 10. Resonant frequency shift detected at horn for meander antenna (top) and
device sensitivity (bottom).
Fig. 11. Resonant frequency shift detected at horn for zigzag antenna (top) and
device sensitivity (bottom).
The sensor’s calibrated wireless telemetry’s repeatability was
confirmed by performing three independent measurements of
three devices of each design. For each experiment, the interro-
gation power radiated from the horn was −5 dBm at 23 ◦ C. The
results were measured for 120 s per 50 mbar during which time
no drift was observed. Figs. 10 and 11 show devices sensitivi-
ties to pressure reflections from the horn antenna. The error bars
shown in Figs. 10 and 11 indicate device-to-device variation that
we attribute to tolerances in the photolithography and membrane
etch. The measured shift in resonant frequency of the meander
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(2010), doi:10.1016/j.sna.2010.10.020
antenna is between 10.28 GHz and 10.27 GHz in response to a pres-
sure range between atmospheric pressure and 1.8 bar. This gives
a device sensitivity of 12.5 kHz/mbar for the device containing the
meander antenna. Data acquired from zigzag antenna device shows
a resonance shift from 9.6078 to 9.5809 GHz according to applied
pressure, yielding a device sensitivity of 16 kHz/mbar.
5. Conclusion
A passive wireless microwave readable pressure sensor has been
developed on a single chip. The devices were implemented by fabri-
cating folded antenna structures on to a silicon dioxide membrane.
Designs based on meander dipole and zigzag antennas were sim-
ulated prior to fabrication. As expected, the antenna design was
sensitive to the presence of the silicon substrate before the mem-
brane was etched, and good agreement between simulation and
experiment was achieved for the completed devices. The applica-
tion of a differential pressure to deflect the membrane gave rise
to a shift in the resonant frequency of 10 MHz over 800 mbar for
the meander antenna. The equivalent frequency shift for the zigzag
antenna was 27.8 MHz. These data translate into pressure sensi-
tivities of 12.5 kHz/mbar and 16 kHz/mbar respectively. A working
wireless operating distance of 10 cm was demonstrated using a very
simple laboratory set up. The new device used electromagnetically
safe readout, and does not need a line of sight assembly and a point-
ing system (as opposed to using a laser) at a widely used frequency
band. In future simple readers and smaller processing units could
be built for use with devices in the V-band using cheap consumer
electronic parts [17].
Acknowledgment
The authors would like to thank the UK Engineering and Physical
Science Research Council (EPSRC) for their funding and full support
for this project.
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Biographies
Amr Ibrahim received his BSc in Physics from University of Khartoum, Sudan in 2002
and his MSc from Heriot-Watt University-Edinburgh in Microsystems Technology in
2006. He is currently working towards his PhD at Glasgow University-Scotland. His
research interests includes on chip antennas and passive components for wireless
sensing applications.
D.R.S. Cumming received the BEng Degree from the University of Glasgow, U.K.
in 1989 and the PhD degree from the University of Cambridge, U.K., in 1993. He
has worked variously on mesoscopic device physics, RF characterization of novel
devices, fabrication of diffractive optics for optical and submillimeter wave appli-
cations, diagnostic systems, and microelectronic design. He served as a EPSRC
Advanced Research Fellow, and he is currently a Professor and Chair of Electronic
Systems at Glasgow University.

Please cite this article in press as: A. Ibrahim, D.R.S. Cumming, Passive single chip wireless microwave pressure sensor, Sens. Actuators A: Phys.
(2010), doi:10.1016/j.sna.2010.10.020