Abstract
A silicon-on-insulator (SOI) piezoresistive three-axis acceleration sensor, consisting of four L-shaped beams, two intermediate double beams, two masses, and twelve piezoresistors, was presented in this work. To detect the acceleration vector (ax, ay, and az) along three directions, twelve piezoresistors were designed on four L-shaped beams and two intermediate beams to form three detecting Wheatstone bridges. A sensitive element simulation model was built using ANSYS finite element simulation software to investigate the cross-interference of sensitivity for the proposed sensor. Based on that, the sensor chip was fabricated on a SOI wafer by using microelectromechanical system (MEMS) technology and packaged on a printed circuit board (PCB). At room temperature and VDD = 5.0 V, the sensitivities of the sensor along x-axis, y-axis, and z-axis were 0.255 mV/g, 0.131 mV/g, and 0.404 mV/g, respectively. The experimental results show that the proposed sensor can realize the detection of acceleration along three directions.
Highlights
Accelerometers have been used in many different fields, such as automotive industry, aviation and national security, aerospace engineering, biological engineering, etc. [1]
In 2018, Marco et al proposed a piezoresistive accelerometer based on a progressive moment of inertia (MMI) increment of the sensor proof mass in three-axis head injuries monitoring, obviously enhancing the sensitivity of the optimized structure along the z-axis up to 0.22 mV/g and obtaining low cross-interference less than 1% F.S. [12]
A SOI three-axis acceleration sensor was proposed in this work, consisting of two mass blocks, four L-shaped beams, and double beams in the middle
Summary
Accelerometers have been used in many different fields, such as automotive industry, aviation and national security, aerospace engineering, biological engineering, etc. [1]. Due to the extensive applications in many different fields, increasing demands for detection has triggered a particular research attention to improve the properties of three-axis acceleration sensor, such as miniaturization, high sensitivity, good consistency and low cross-interference of sensitivity, etc. In 2016, Xu et al fabricated a novel piezoresistive accelerometer with axially stressed sensing beams, improving the sensitivity and the resonant frequency at a supply voltage of 3.0 V, and reducing the cross-axis sensitivity along x-axis and z-axis by less than 4.875 × 10−6 mV/g and 4.425 × 10−6 mV/g, respectively [9]. Han et al proposed a low cross-axis sensitivity piezoresistive accelerometer based on masked–maskless wet etching, which consisted of a proof mass, eight supporting beams, and four sensing beams, and achieved cross-axis sensitivities along x-axis and y-axis of 1.67% and 0.82%, respectively [13]. The study on the proposed sensor provides a new strategy for fabricating three-axis acceleration sensor to detect the acceleration vector
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