Capacitive depression sensor for microfluidic pneumatic networks

This paper reports a capacitive depression sensor intended to make measurements in-line in microfluidics pneumatic networks which works with negative pressures in the order of hundreds of millibars. The principle of operation of the sensor is neither thermal nor magnetic, but purely mechanical, and does not need a servomechanism. The proposed device is composed by two circular membranes linked by a column. This structure presents a particular behavior when exerting negative pressures between the membranes, named negative behavior. The behavior is confirmed prior to fabrication using numerical simulations. The materials used are the negative epoxy photoresist SU-8, printed circuit board (PCB) and sputtered gold. The device has been experimentally tested in the laboratory with successful results, providing an increment of capacitance from 1.7 to 3 pF for applied depressions from 0 to 500 mbar and presenting good agreement with the electromechanical FEM simulations.