Realisation of silicon piezoresistive accelerometer with proof mass-edge-aligned-flexures using wet anisotropic etching

Author(s): A. Ravi Sankar ; J. Grace Jency ; J. Ashwini ; S. Das
DOI: 10.1049/mnl.2011.0717

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Author(s): A. Ravi Sankar ¹ ; J. Grace Jency ² ; J. Ashwini ² ; S. Das ³
- Affiliations: 1: School of Electronics Engineering, VIT University, Chennai, India
  2: Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering, School of Electrical Sciences, Karunya University, Coimbatore, India
  3: School of Medical Science and Technology, Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, India
Source: Volume 7, Issue 2, February 2012, p. 118 – 121
DOI: 10.1049/mnl.2011.0717 , Online ISSN 1750-0443

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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Realisation of silicon piezoresistive accelerometer with proof mass-edge-aligned-flexures using wet anisotropic etching

Realisation of silicon piezoresistive accelerometer with proof mass-edge-aligned-flexures using wet anisotropic etching

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