Micromachined accelerometer based on convection heat transfer

Author

Leung, A.M. ; Jones, J. ; Czyzewska, E. ; Chen, J. ; Woods, B.

Author_Institution

Sch. of Eng. Sci., Simon Fraser Univ., Burnaby, BC, Canada

fYear

1998

fDate

25-29 Jan 1998

Firstpage

627

Lastpage

630

Abstract

A micromachined thermal accelerometer that is simple, reliable, and inexpensive to make has been developed at Simon Fraser University. The operating principle of this accelerometer is based on the free-convection heat transfer of a small hot air bubble in a sealed chamber. An experimental device that requires only four masking steps to fabricate has been built. This device has demonstrated a 0.6 milli-g sensitivity that can theoretically be extended to sub-micro-g level: A 2-axis accelerometer based on the same operating principle has also been fabricated and tested

Keywords

accelerometers; bubbles; convection; micromachining; microsensors; semiconductor technology; temperature sensors; 2-axis accelerometer; Si; Simon Fraser University; convection heat transfer; free-convection heat transfer; hot air bubble; micromachined accelerometer; sealed chamber; sub-micro-g level; Acceleration; Accelerometers; Bridges; Capacitance measurement; Heat transfer; Packaging; Silicon; Springs; Temperature measurement; Temperature sensors;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Micro Electro Mechanical Systems, 1998. MEMS 98. Proceedings., The Eleventh Annual International Workshop on

Conference_Location

Heidelberg

ISSN

1084-6999

Print_ISBN

0-7803-4412-X

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/MEMSYS.1998.659830

Filename

659830