Wahab, Yufridin (2009) Design and implementation of MEMS biomechanical sensors for real-life measurements of gait parameters. PhD thesis, Victoria University.

Abstract

Foot clearance above the ground during walking is an important clinical and rehabilitation gait analysis parameter. Current bulky and laboratory environment based instruments are not suitable for measurement in the natural environment such as in the outdoors. This research analyses three promising distance measurement techniques (capacitive, electric field and ultrasound) that may be suitable for MEMS realization of foot clearance measurement. The study suggests that ultrasoundbased technique is very suitable for this application and thus a model is proposed in this research. The ultrasonic transducer model is suitable for MEMS realization using the increasingly popular Capacitive Micromachined Ultrasonic Transducer technology. The Capacitive micromachined ultrasound transducer is recently becoming the focus of many researchers due to its high performance, in terms of electromechanical coupling factor, bandwidth, mechanical impedance and sensitivity. An investigation into the capability of MEMS technology in the design and analysis of ultrasonic transducer is reported. The work includes an investigation into design process, modeling and simulation. Analysis was performed on the produced transducer to investigate several key performances such as pull-in voltage,resonance frequency, electromechanical coupling factor, deflection and the resulting capacitance change.

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