Frequency and sensitivity evaluation of perforated low temperature co-fired ceramic (LTCC) diaphragm

In this study, the effect of perforation on the low temperature cofired ceramic (LTCC) based diaphragm sensitivity (deflection) and frequency was evaluated by using finite element method. Perforation of diaphragm was selected between the 5% to 50%. Square shape ltcc diaphragm thicknesses were 35 μm, 50 μm, 70 μm, 80 μm and 100 μm with the side length of 2 mm, 3 mm, 4 mm and 5 mm, respectively. 10 different diaphragm design for each thickness and size were used to accomplish perforated diaphragm by considering different circular hole diameter and pitch distance. Total number of designs that were used for FEM analysis of diaphragms sensitivity and frequency were 200. It was found that the sensitivity (deflection) and frequency were affected by perforation of ltcc diaphragm. As the perforation value increase, naturel frequency of diaphragm decreases. There is a proportion between the sensitivity and perforation. Perforation of ltcc diaphragm provides wider frequency range and higher sensitivity as compared to imperforated diaphragm. In this study, it was concluded that perforation is a useful tool for tuning the sensitivity and frequency response of micro electro-mechanical system (MEMS) based ltcc diaphragm. Thus, this study may guide the designing and fabrication of high performance ltcc diaphragm in terms of sensitivity and frequency by tuning the hole size and pitch distance for future works.