Microelectromechanical Resonant Accelerometer Designed with a High Sensitivity

This paper describes the design and experimental evaluation of a silicon micro-machined resonant accelerometer (SMRA). This type of accelerometer works on the principle that a proof mass under acceleration applies force to two double-ended tuning fork (DETF) resonators, and the frequency output of two DETFs exhibits a differential shift. The dies of an SMRA are fabricated using silicon-on-insulator (SOI) processing and wafer-level vacuum packaging. This research aims to design a high-sensitivity SMRA because a high sensitivity allows for the acceleration signal to be easily demodulated by frequency counting techniques and decreases the noise level. This study applies the energy-consumed concept and the Nelder-Mead algorithm in the SMRA to address the design issues and further increase its sensitivity. Using this novel method, the sensitivity of the SMRA has been increased by 66.1%, which attributes to both the re-designed DETF and the reduced energy loss on the micro-lever. The results of both the closed-form and finite-element analyses are described and are in agreement with one another. A resonant frequency of approximately 22 kHz, a frequency sensitivity of over 250 Hz per g, a one-hour bias stability of 55 μg, a bias repeatability (1σ) of 48 μg and the bias-instability of 4.8 μg have been achieved.