Abstract
We developed a micro-whistle-type sensor driven by pneumatic pressure for the measurement of the applying force at the tip of a forceps in endoscopic surgery. The displacement applied to the sensor can be detected by the change of the resonant frequency of the whistle, which is controllable by the length of a resonant tube. It was fabricated using surface micromachining, resulting in the advantages: small size enough to be integrated into a forceps and capability of mass production. The standard deviation of the resonant frequency was 1.8 Hz and the magnitude of the sound was 83 dB. We obtained the proportional relationship between the length of the tube and the resonant frequency. Although these properties are comparable to our previous whistle-type sensor fabricated by a NC machine tool, it is proven that the MEMS based fabrication can produce a number of equal quality sensors.
