The effect of shear stress on the piezoresistance of silicon

Abstract

General analyses of the piezoresistance, taking into consideration the effect of shear stress, have been made for circular, square and rectangular silicon diaphragms. The analyses can lead to the design of a full-bridge pressure transducer on a (110) circular diaphragm with 30% higher sensitivity than previous designs. Experimental results showing the dependence of the piezoresistive sensitivity on the inclination angle agree well with the results of general analyses. Experiments show that the information obtained might also be useful in a new application where the non-linearity of transverse voltage of a four-terminal resistor can be compensated for by its own piezoresistive sensitivity of resistance.