Temperature and pressure characterization of the quality factor in a CMOS-MEMS resonator

In this paper, we present a study of the quality factor (Q) behavior of a CMOS-MEMS resonator under different conditions of temperature and pressure. The device has been manufactured using standard 250 nm CMOS technology followed by an in-house BEOL metal-layer release wet etching. The manufactured sensor is used as a pressure estimator based on the variation of Q. Experiments have demonstrated an inverse relationship between the resonator Q and temperature in different pressure regimes. The initial Q has decreased to 0.80*Q at 100 Pa when the temperature changed from 300 K to 360 K, and to 0.65*Q at atmospheric pressure under the same temperature span. The static capacitance variations of the device with temperature have also been measured.