An Optical MEMS Accelerometer Based on a Two-Dimensional Photonic Crystal Add-Drop Filter

Abstract

In this paper, a novel optical microelectromechanical systems accelerometer sensor is proposed by using a two-dimensional photonic crystal add-drop filter which is relied on a wavelength modulation approach. The proposed optical sensing system consists of a laser diode light source, tunable add-drop filter based on ring resonator principal, photo-detector, and integrated waveguides. Simulation results show that the functional characteristics of the proposed sensor are as follows: mechanical sensitivity of 1.6 nm/g, linear measurement range of $-$ 156 to 156 g, optical sensitivity of 0.0756 nm/g, and first resonance frequency of 12.9 kHz. These functional characteristics make it very interesting in a wide spectrum of applications, ranging from consumer electronics to automotive and inertial navigation.