An Electrochemical Angular Micro-Accelerometer Based on Miniaturized Planar Electrodes Positioned in Parallel

Abstract

Electrochemical angular micro-accelerometers based on miniaturized planar electrodes positioned in parallel were reported in this paper. Based on liquid inertial masses, incoming angular acceleration was translated into varied concentrations of reactive ions around sensitive electrodes, generating detection currents. As to the sensitive unit configuration, two electrode setups of A(anode) C(cathode)CA-ACCA and ACAC-CACA were utilized in this study for comparison where corresponding key geometrical parameters were optimized based on numerical simulations. Based on microfabrication, electrochemical angular micro-accelerometers with geometrical variations were fabricated and characterized, producing consistent results with numerical simulations and therefore optimized geometrical parameters of electrode space, electrode width and electrode gap were determined. Furthermore, for each electrode setup with optimized geometries, six electrochemical angular micro-accelerometers were characterized, producing high sensitivities with low coefficients of variation, which were 20.169 ± 0.843 V/(rad/s <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sup> ) for ACCA-ACCA and 5.868 ± 0.328 V/(rad/s <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sup> ) for ACAC-CACA at 0.01 Hz. In summary, the electrochemical angular micro-accelerometers reported in this study can provide new perspectives for the monitoring of angular vibrations in seismology.