An integrated sensor for pressure, temperature, and relative humidity based on MEMS technology

This paper presents an integrated multifunctional sensor based on MEMS technology, which can be used or embedded in mobile devices for environmental monitoring. An absolute pressure sensor, a temperature sensor and a humidity sensor are integrated in one silicon chip of which the size is 5 mmX 5 mm. The pressure sensor uses a bulk-micromachined diaphragm structure with the piezoresistors. For temperature sensing, a silicon temperature sensor based on the spreading-resistance principle is designed and fabricated. The humidity sensor is a capacitive humidity sensor which has the polyimide film and interdigitated capacitance electrodes. The different piezoresistive orientation is used for the pressure and temperature sensor to avoid the interference between sensors. Each sensor shows good sensor characteristics except for the humidity sensor. However, the linearity and hysteresis of the humidity sensor can be improved by selecting the proper polymer materials and structures.