RESUMO
Parasitic capacitance represents the main error source in measurement systems based on electrical impedance spectroscopy. The capacitive nature of electrodes' impedance in tetrapolar configuration can give origin to phase errors when electrodes are coupled to parasitic capacitances. Nevertheless, reactive charges in tissue excitation systems are susceptible to instability. Based on such a scenario, mitigating capacitive effects associated with the electrode is a requirement in order to reduce errors in the measurement system. A literature review about the main compensation techniques for parasitic capacitance was carried out. The selected studies were categorized into three groups: (i) compensation in electronic instrumentation; (ii) compensation in measurement processing, and (iii) compensation by negative impedance converters. The three analyzed methods emerged as effective against fixed capacitance. No method seemed capable of mitigating the effects of electrodes' capacitance, that changes in the frequency spectrum. The analysis has revealed the need for a method to compensate varying capacitances, since electrodes' impedance is unknown.
Assuntos
Eletricidade , Eletrônica , Impedância Elétrica , Capacitância Elétrica , EletrodosRESUMO
The development of silicon-based sensor devices has enabled the possibility to pursue novel integrated smart sensor technologies. Under this scenario, capacitive sensor devices are one viable option for implementing different kinds of applications. In this paper, an interdigitated coplanar capacitive device fabricated over a silicon substrate is presented and its potential use as liquid sensor is demonstrated. Additionally, a detailed capacitance model, which includes the parasitic capacitances introduced by the silicon substrate, was developed. The capacitance model has been theoretically validated through finite-element simulations as well as experimentally by comparison with fabricated devices. A polydimethylsiloxane mold has been fabricated and bonded to the sensor device with the aim of defining a cavity to collect the liquid sample into the device's active region. The active capacitance component correlates to the electric field coupling between adjacent metal lines. Therefore, any change to the dielectric constant of the medium above the coplanar metal lines will produce a change to the device capacitance. Finally, the main guidelines for device performance improvement are depicted.