Design and implementation of capacitive proximity sensor using microelectromechanical systems technology

This paper presents an innovative proximity sensor using microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) technology. The proximity sensor works on the principle of fringe capacitance. The target object does not need to be part of the measuring system and could be either a conductor or nonconductor. Modeling of the proximity sensor is performed and closed-form analytical solution is obtained for a ring-shaped sensing pattern. The proximity sensors could be batch fabricated using MEMS technology, and the fabrication process is relatively simple. Measurement of the prototype sensors revealed promising results. The size of the proximity sensor could vary from a few hundred micrometers to the size of the substrate. The flexibility on sensor size, sensing patterns, and sensing pattern geometrical parameters makes the sensor very versatile and capable of precision measurement of proximity in the range from micrometers to centimeters. The small size of the sensor makes it possible to surface mount the sensor in many space-constrained places. This advantage is vital in many areas, such as MEMS, microrobotics, precision engineering, machine automation, inspection tools, and many other applications. The ability of the proximity sensor in measuring relative permittivity of materials also finds the sensor useful applications in biomedical and tissue engineering. In addition, this micro proximity sensor is an ideal building block for many other types of sensors, such as force, tactile, and flow sensors.