Development of miniature weight sensor using piezoresistive pressure sensor

Abstract

Strain gauge type load cell is used widely as weight sensor. However, it has problems such as noise, power consumption, high cost and big size. Semiconductor type piezoresistive pressure sensor is practically used in recent for low hysteresis, good linearity, small size, light weight and strong on vibration. In this paper, we have fabricated the piezoresistive pressure sensor and packaged the miniature weight sensor. We packaged the miniature weight sensor by flip-chip bonding between die and PCB for durability, because the weight sensor is directly contacted on a physical solid distinct from air and oil pressure. We measured the characteristics of the weight sensor, which had the output of $10{\sim}80$ mV on the weight range of $0{\sim}2$ kg. In the result, we could fabricate the weight sensor with an accuracy of 3 %FSO linearity.