Characterization of a PiezoMUMPs Microsensor for Contactless Measurements of DC Electrical Current

This paper presents an integrated sensor able to perform contactless measurements of dc electrical current. The microsensor conceived is based on the PiezoMUMPs technology which embeds a layer of piezoelectric material thus offering a mechanoelectric transduction of the measurand: the dc electrical current flowing into a wire external to the microsensor is here converted into a voltage signal without the need of auxiliary polarization signals or integrated inductors/coils as in the case electrostatic and electromagnetic devices, respectively. A prototype of the MEMS device has been designed, modeled, numerically simulated, and then fabricated. A measurement campaign allowed validating the sensor and to characterize its performances.