Developing MEMS DC Electric Current Sensor for End-use Monitoring of DC Power Supply: Part III - Integration with Actuating and Sensing Elements

A passive (power-less), bending type MEMS DC current sensor to satisfy the increasing needs of DC power supply for monitoring the electricity consumption by either one-wire or two-wire appliance cord was proposed in our past work (DTIP 2011). Recently, a MEMS-scale prototype DC sensor, comprised of 5 parallel PZT plates, was micro-fabricated for preliminarily examination (DTIP 2012). Different from the results of the macro-scale prototype DC sensor, impulsive piezoelectric output voltages accompanying with a gradual decrease in decay were detected when the applied DC electric current was varied from 0.5 A to 2.5 A. A linear relationship between the detected peak value of the impulse output voltage and the applied DC electric current was also obtained but with a higher slope compared to the result of the macro-scale hand-made prototype DC sensor. In present study however (DTIP 2013), a novel oscillating type MEMS DC current sensor was further proposed. Its applicability to constantly measure the DC current without using cord separator was preliminarily verified.