• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.27 no.8
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• pp.1259-1265
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• 2003

We present a new post-fabrication frequency tuning method for laterally driven electrostatic microresonators using a DC-biased electrostatic comb array of linearly varied finger-length. The electrostatic tuning force and the equivalent stiffness, adjusted by the DC-biased tuning-comb array, have been formulated as functions of geometry and DC tuning voltage. A set of frequency-turnable microresonators has been designed and fabricated by 4-mask surface-micromachining process. The resonant frequency of the microfabricated microresonator has been measured for a varying tuning voltage at the reduced pressure of 1 torr. The maximum 3.3% reduction of the resonant frequency is achieved at the tuning voltage increase of 20V.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.520-528
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• 2001

This paper investigates a resonant microaccelerometer that measures acceleration using a built-in micromechanical resonator, whose resonant frequency is changed by the acceleration-induced axial force. A set of design equations for the resonant microaccelerometer has been developed, including analytic formulae for resonant frequency, sensitivity, nonlinearity and maximum stress. On this basis, the sizes of the accelerometer are designed for the sensitivity of 10$^3$Hz/g in the detection range of 5g, while satisfying the conditions for the maximum nonlinearity of 5%, the minimum shock endurance of 100g and the size constraints placed by microfabrication process. A set of the resonant accelerometers has been fabricated by the combined use of bulk-micromachining and surface-micromachining techniques. From a static test of the cantilever beam resonant accelerometer, a frequency shift of 860Hz has been measured for the proof-mass deflection of 4.3${\pm}$0.5$\mu\textrm{m}$; thereby resulting in the detection sensitivity of 1.10${\times}$10$^3$Hz/g. Uncertainty analysis of the resonant frequency output has been performed to identify important issues involved in the design, fabrication and testing of the resonant accelerometer.