Drag force micro solid state silicon plate wind velocity sensor

A drag force wind sensor using the torque of cantilever to measure the velocity of wind is presented in this paper. The sensor consists of a thin silicon plate and two short cantilevers which connect with the plate and silicon substrate and will bend when wind blow to the plate. The drag force sensor was simulated with ANSYS software, analyzed with fluid mechanics principle and fabricated using MEMS-based technology. By testing the designed sensor within small wind tunnel the results of calculation and simulation are validated. When setting the input 0.5 V we obtain a sensor capable of high sensitivity 60 μV/(m/s) at the high wind velocity about 18 m/s. The results of experiments suggest that the designed sensor can be used to detect wind velocity and determine wind directions.