Enhanced quality factor in a weakly coupled tuning fork electric field sensor to mitigate mode aliasing

High-performance electric field sensors (EFS) provide support for detecting electric field (E-field) in atmospheric and power grid applications. This paper proposed a method using weakly coupled fork microstructure to enhance the quality factor (Q-factor) and mitigate mode aliasing. Compared to traditional micro electric field mill sensors (MEFM), this approach shows improvements in these performance metrics. The performance of this structure was analysed theoretically and simulated numerically, and a MEMS chip prototype was fabricated. At an air pressure of 0.001 Pa, the sensor achieved a Q factor of 42,423, with a measurement range of 90 kV/m and a resolution of 32 V/m under these conditions. The sensor demonstrates better potential to meet the requirements in atmospheric and power grid applications.