Wafer-Level Vacuum-Packaged Flexible and Bendable Micro Accelerometer

Abstract

This paper presents a wafer-level vacuum-packaged z-axis capacitive micro accelerometer fabricated on a flexible polyimide substrate and encapsulated by another polyimide superstrate enabling the flexibility, bendability, and portability of both the device and the package. The novel low-cost and low-temperature encapsulation procedure requires a fewer fabrication steps than the processes, where a thin epitaxial Si layer or a full Si wafer with cavity is used as a superstrate. It also provides a better pliability. The fabricated micro accelerometers demonstrated excellent integrity when bowed down to 2-cm radius of curvature with the sensitivity varying between 139 and 174 fF/g, depending on the design, under the application of ±4 g of acceleration. The resonant frequencies varied from 800 Hz for the largest device to 1050 Hz for the smallest device. The results reported here represent the best performing, wafer-level-packaged flexible micro accelerometers to date.