• 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.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2008.11a
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• pp.1857-1862
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• 2008

Resonant frequency tuning of micro devices is essential to achieve performance uniformity and high sensitivity. Previously reported frequency tuning methods using electrostatic force or mass deposition are not directly applicable to non-conducting polymer devices and have limitations such as dielectric breakdown or low tunable bandwidth. In this paper, thermally frequency-tunable microactuators with poly-dimethylsiloxane membranes are proposed. Permanent and/or nonpermanent frequency tunings are possible using a simple temperature control of the device. Resonant frequency and Q-factor variations of devices according to temperature change were studied using a micro heater and laser Doppler vibrometer. The initial resonant frequencies determined by polymer curing and hardening temperatures are reversibly tuned by thermal cycles. The measured resonant frequency of 9.7 kHz was tuned up by ${\sim}25%$ and Q-factor was increased from 14.5 to 27 as the micro heater voltage increased from 0 to 70 V.