• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.6 no.5
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• pp.346-355
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• 1997

In this paper, the analyses of the stress disturibution and frequency characteristics of silicon microstructures for an accelerometer were performed using the general purpose finite element simulation program, ANSYS. From the analyses, we determined the parameter values of a new 6-beam piezoresistive accelerometer applicable to the accelerometer's specification in airbag system of automobile. Then, the mass paddle radius, beam length, beam width, and beam thickness of the designed accelerometer were$500{\mu}m$, $350{\mu}m$, $100{\mu}m$, and $5{\mu}m$, respectively and two different seismic masses with 0.4 mg and 0.8 mg were defined on the same sensor structure. The designed 6- beam accelerometers were fabricated on the selectively diffused (111)-oriented $n/n^{+}/n$ silicon substrates and the characteristics of the fabricated accelerometers were investigated. Then, we used a micromachining technique using porous silicon etching method for the formation of the micromechanical structure of the accelerometer.