Numerical and experimental investigation on contactless resonant sensors

This paper reports numerical and experimental investigation on a (bulk and etch silicon on insulator) BESOI MEMS device. The implemented contactless actuation principle, exploits Lorentz forces exerted on a conductive-non magnetic surface of the sensor. These forces derive from the interaction between the eddy-currents and the radial magnetic field, both generated by a sinusoidally driven external inductor. Both excitation and readout strategies are performed remotely via a magnetic strategy. The sensor proposed here has been first analytically and numerically studied by using CoventorWare™ 2008, then the device prototype has been fabricated and a preliminary experimental campaign has been performed to characterize the system in terms of variation of its resonance frequency against changes in the sensor mass.