Performance enhancement of silicon MEMS PZR accelerometer with electroplated gold on proofmass

Performance enhancement of silicon MEMS PZR accelerometer with electroplated gold on proofmass has been presented in this paper. Performance enhancement is achieved by depositing heavy electroplated gold mass of 20 mum thickness on top of proof mass of the device. The structures were simulated for acceleration of plusmn10 g using a commercially available software package CoventorWaretrade 2005. For 20 mum thick electroplated gold on whole area of proofmass, sensitivity along Z-axis is increased by 60.6% as compared to the structure without gold. For 10 g acceleration off-axis sensitivities along X and Y-axes are reduced by 38.3% and 18.96% respectively. A commercially available sulphite based solution TSG-250trade was used for electroplating. Both the accelerometer structures have been successfully fabricated. Dual doped TMAH solution was used for wet anisotropic etching. Thus the fabrication process is CMOS compatible.