© The Institution of Engineering and Technology
This Letter presents simulation, fabrication and testing of a high-performance quad-beam silicon piezoresistive accelerometer with very low cross-axis sensitivity. Cross-axis sensitivity in piezoresistive accelerometers is an important issue particularly for high-performance applications. In the present Letter, low cross-axis sensitivity is achieved by improving the device stability by placing four flexures in line with the proof mass edges. The accelerometer device is realised in a single-step double-sided bulk micromachining technique using a 5% dual-doped tetra methyl ammonium hydroxide solution as an anisotropic etchant. Test results of four fabricated devices show an average prime-axis sensitivity of 559.5 µV/g/5 V, a maximum cross-axis sensitivity of 0.62% full scale (FS acceleration=13 g) of the prime-axis sensitivity and nonlinearity at a level of 0.5% of FS which are comparatively better than already reported devices and commercially available piezoresistive sensors.
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http://iet.metastore.ingenta.com/content/journals/10.1049/mnl.2011.0717
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