Piezoresistive silicon cantilevers fabricated by ion implantation are frequently used for force, displacement, and chemical sensors due to their low cost and electronic readout. However, the design of piezoresistive cantilevers is not a straightforward problem due to coupling between the design parameters, constraints, process conditions, and performance. We systematically analyzed the effect of design and process parameters on force resolution and then developed an optimization approach to improve force resolution while satisfying various design constraints using simulation results. The combined simulation and optimization approach is extensible to other doping methods beyond ion implantation in principle. The optimization results were validated by fabricating cantilevers with the optimized conditions and characterizing their performance. The measurement results demonstrate that the analytical model accurately predicts force and displacement resolution, and sensitivity and noise tradeoff in optimal cantilever performance. We also performed a comparison between our optimization technique and existing models and demonstrated eight times improvement in force resolution over simplified models.

中文翻译：

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压阻式悬臂梁性能——第二部分：优化

通过离子注入制造的压阻式硅悬臂梁由于其低成本和电子读出而经常用于力、位移和化学传感器。然而，由于设计参数、约束、工艺条件和性能之间的耦合，压阻式悬臂梁的设计并不是一个简单的问题。我们系统地分析了设计和工艺参数对力分辨率的影响，然后开发了一种优化方法来提高力分辨率，同时使用仿真结果满足各种设计约束。结合模拟和优化方法原则上可扩展到离子注入以外的其他掺杂方法。通过在优化条件下制造悬臂并表征其性能来验证优化结果。测量结果表明，分析模型准确地预测了力和位移分辨率，以及最佳悬臂性能的灵敏度和噪声权衡。我们还对我们的优化技术和现有模型进行了比较，并证明力分辨率比简化模型提高了八倍。