A Micro Resonant DC Electric Field Sensor Based on Mode Localization Phenomenon

This paper for the first time reports a resonant DC electric field sensor (EFS) based on the mode localization phenomenon. The sensor uses a 3-degrees-of-freedom (DoF) weakly coupled resonator (WCR) as the mechanical sensing element, with comb capacitors on both sides for converting electric field to stiffness perturbation. The perturbation causes a drastic change in the mode shape owing to the mode localization phenomenon. Then we use the amplitude ratio (AR) instead of the frequency as the readout metric, and the sensitivity based on the AR is 1720 times higher than that based on the frequency. Just under the open-loop test, the resolution of the sensor reaches 20.4V/m√ Hz in the range of 7 kV.