Modeling of a Smart Nano Force Sensor Using Finite Elements and Neural Networks

The aim of this work is to model and analyze the behavior of a new smart nano force sensor. To do so, the carbon nanotube has been used as a suspended gate of a metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET). The variation of the applied force on the carbon nanotube (CNT) generates a variation of the capacity of the transistor oxide-gate and therefore the variation of the threshold voltage, which allows the MOSFET to become a capacitive nano force sensor. The sensitivity of the nano force sensor can reach 0.124 31 V/nN. This sensitivity is greater than results in the literature. We have found through this study that the response of the sensor depends strongly on the geometric and physical parameters of the CNT. From the results obtained in this study, it can be seen that the increase in the applied force increases the value of the MOSFET threshold voltage V_Th. In this paper, we first used artificial neural networks to faithfully reproduce the response of the nano force sensor model. This neural model is called direct model. Then, secondly, we designed an inverse model called an intelligent sensor which allows linearization of the response of our developed force sensor.