Streamlining the Design of MEMS Devices: An Acceleration Sensor

A synthesis and optimization process is proposed and applied to the design of a specific MEMS device, namely an acceleration sensor. The design synthesis methodology exploits the fast and accurate simulation of the SUGAR tool (based on modified modal analysis) along with the full simulation capability of ANSYS (based on the finite element method). A three degrees-of-freedom piezoresistive acceleration sensor was designed to validate the proposed design flow. During the course of design, the modified nodal analysis and the finite element methods were combined in optimizing the sensor structure. In the latter, the piezoresistance effect was employed in sensing the acceleration in three dimensions.