Novel Three-Axis Solid-state Micro Accelerometer with Surrounding Beam Structure

Abstract

This study presents the design, fabrication and characterization of an ultra miniaturized 3-axis accelerometer based on micro/nanoelectromechanical systems (MEMS/NEMS). This accelerometer designed and fabricated as small as with overall dimensions 700μmX700μmX550μm length width and thickness, respectively. It can detect three components of acceleration simultaneously.. The sensitivity could be enhanced significantly while miniaturizing the die size of sensor chip with the aid of novel structure and nano-scale piezoresistors on the sensing beams. Therefore, this novel proposed sensor is showing good performance and smaller than other comparable miniaturized sensor structures reported thus far. The accelerometer is capable of measuring accelerations up to ±50g in the frequency bandwidth of 300Hz accordance with finite element simulation.