Numerical study on displacement of dielectric film composed of array of differently shaped elements for capacitance based MEMS sensors

Sensitivity depends upon the fabrication process adopted and the effective displacement of the dielectric layer, particularly for the case of a capacitance based sensor. In this scenario, patterning of the dielectric is adopted at a mass level in order to fabricate highly sensitive sensors for robotics and biomedical sensing purpose (like electronic skin, etc.). In the present study, a numerical modelling is done using COMSOL software (academic version 5.1) to show the effect of patterning of the dielectric layer on its displacement while placing it between two plates of a capacitor. This is done by making an array of square, circle and pyramid shaped elements. Hence, a parametric study is done using load, size and type of element of the array as various parameters. Different combination of results is shown with the conclusion that pyramid-shaped elements based array gives maximum displacement followed by circle-shaped elements when compared with the solid filled and square shaped elements based array of the dielectric layer.