Design and Simulation of Piezoresistive Pressure Sensor for Ocean Depth Measurements

This paper presents the design and simulation of a piezoresistive pressure sensor with wide operation range (up to the pressure of 1000 m-deep water). Structural and electrical simulations were carried out using COMSOL Multiphysics 4.3. The dimension of the membrane, and the geometry and placement of piezoresistors, were optimized through structural simulations. Electrical simulations were used to evaluate the performance of selected sensors. The output characteristics revealed good linearity throughout the measurement range with sensitivities of 0.4500~0.8964 mV/V/MPa. The optimum design of sensor was determined according to the simulation results.