Date of Award

3-14-2014

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science

Department

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering

First Advisor

Ronald A. Coutu Jr., PhD.

Abstract

In this research effort, a Microelectromechanical system (MEMS) cantilever pressure sensor was designed, modeled, and fabricated to investigate the photoacoustic (PA) response of gases to terahertz (THz) radiation under low vacuum conditions. Previous efforts in this project were improved upon, to include lowering resting out-of-plane curvature to improve sensitivity of devices. Dimensional analysis is taken into consideration and altered dimensions also serve to boost sensitivity while improving fragility of devices. All devices were fabricated on silicon-on-insulator (SOI) wafers and tested in a custom designed THz vacuum chamber. Fabricated devices have a minimum normalized noise equivalent absorption (NNEA) coefficient of 4.28x10(-10), an improvement of 69% on prior 10micro devices.

AFIT Designator

AFIT-ENG-14-M-58

DTIC Accession Number

ADA598495

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