Articles | Volume 3, issue 2
https://doi.org/10.5194/jsss-3-167-2014
https://doi.org/10.5194/jsss-3-167-2014
Regular research article
 | 
08 Aug 2014
Regular research article |  | 08 Aug 2014

Fabrication and characterization of a piezoresistive humidity sensor with a stress-free package

T. Waber, M. Sax, W. Pahl, S. Stufler, A. Leidl, M. Günther, and G. Feiertag

Abstract. A highly miniaturized piezoresistive humidity sensor has been developed. The starting point of the development was a 1 × 1 mm2 piezoresistive pressure sensor chip. As sensing material, a polyimide was used that swells with increasing adsorption of water molecules. To convert the swelling into an electrical signal, a thin layer of the polyimide was deposited onto the bending plate of the pressure sensor. The humidity sensor was characterized in a climate chamber. The measurements show a sensitivity of 0.25 mV per percent relative humidity (%RH) and a non-linearity of 3.1% full scale (FS) in the range of 30–80% RH. A high cross-sensitivity to temperature of around 0.5 mV °C−1 was measured, so temperature compensation is necessary. For stress-free packaging of the sensor chip, a novel packaging technology was developed.

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