This study proposes a novel design and micromachining process for a dual-cantilever accelerometer. Comb and curved-surface structures are integrated into the sensing structure to modulate the squeeze-film damping, thus effectively optimizing the response frequency bandwidth. Owing to the high stress concentration on the dual-cantilever integrated with a fully sensitive piezoresistive Wheatstone bridge, a high sensitivity to acceleration is achieved. In addition, the dual-cantilever accelerometer is fabricated using a specifically developed low-cost and high-yield (111)-silicon single-side bulk-micromachining process. The test results show that the proposed dualcantilever accelerometer exhibits a sensitivity of 0.086—0.088 mV/g/3.3 V and a nonlinearity of ±(0.09%—0.23%) FS (full-scale). Based on dynamic characterization, an adequate frequency bandwidth of 2.64 kHz is verified. Furthermore, a resonant frequency of 4.388 kHz is measured, and a low quality factor (Q) of 7.62 is obtained, which agrees well with the design for air-damping modulation. The achieved high performance renders the proposed dual-cantilever accelerometer promising in applications such as automotive and consumer electronics.
JIAO Ding (焦 鼎), NI Zao (倪 藻), WANG Jiachou (王家畴), LI Xinxin∗ (李昕欣)
. High-Performance Single-Side Fabricated (111)-Silicon Dual-Cantilever Accelerometer with Squeeze-Film Air Damping Modulation[J]. Journal of Shanghai Jiaotong University(Science), 2023
, 28(2)
: 197
-206
.
DOI: 10.1007/s12204-021-2288-2
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