Room-Temperature Sensing of Single Electrons Using Vibrating-Reed Electrometer in Silicon-on-Glass Technology

In the commonly used existing silicon-on-insulator microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) process, a silicon-oxide-silicon sandwich structure in the sensor device creates parasitic capacitance, which reduces the charge sensitivity. In this letter, for the first time, we demonstrate a vibrating-reed-based electrometry system with high sensitivity and resolution in the silicon-on-glass (SOG) MEMS process. In this letter, we utilize a glass substrate instead of silicon to ameliorate charge sensitivity by reducing the parasitic capacitance. An improved preamplifier circuit topology incorporating with the proposed sensor shows a sensitivity of 1.43 x 10(11) V/C, which is the highest in the literature. In addition, the best charge resolution of 1.03 e/root Hz@5.7 kHz has achieved at room temperature and atmospheric pressure. This result provides strong evidence for the validity of our SOG-based MEMS device as a charge sensor for detecting even a single electron.