A post-CMOS micromachined lateral accelerometer

Author

Luo, Hao ; Zhang, Gang ; Carley, L. Richard ; Fedder, Gary K.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electr. & Comput. Eng., Carnegie Mellon Univ., Pittsburgh, PA, USA

Volume

11

Issue

3

fYear

2002

fDate

6/1/2002 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

188

Lastpage

195

Abstract

In a post-complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) micromachining technology, the process flow enables the integration of micromechanical structures with conventional CMOS circuits which are low-cost and readily available. This paper presents a lateral capacitive sensing accelerometer fabricated in the post-CMOS process. Design advantages include electrically isolated multimetal routing on microstructures to create full-bridge capacitive sensors, and integration to increase transducer sensitivity by minimizing parasitic capacitance. In a size of 350 μm by 500 μm, this accelerometer has a 1 mG/√(Hz) resolution and a linear range of at least ±13 G. The fundamental limitations of mechanical and electronic noise for acceleration sensing are addressed

Keywords

CMOS integrated circuits; accelerometers; capacitive sensors; micromachining; microsensors; silicon; 350 micron; 500 micron; acceleration sensing; capacitive sensing accelerometer; electrically isolated multimetal routing; electronic noise; full-bridge capacitive sensors; linear range; mechanical noise; micromachined lateral accelerometer; micromechanical structures; parasitic capacitance; post-CMOS process; process flow; resolution; transducer sensitivity; Accelerometers; CMOS process; CMOS technology; Circuits; Isolation technology; Micromachining; Micromechanical devices; Microstructure; Process design; Routing;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Microelectromechanical Systems, Journal of

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

1057-7157

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/JMEMS.2002.1007397

Filename

1007397