• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers C
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• v.50 no.7
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• pp.346-350
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• 2001

We present a surface-micromachined polysilicon capacitive accelerometer using unevenly distributed comb electrodes. The unique features of the accelerometer include a perforated proof-mass and the inner and outer comb electrodes with uneven electrode gaps. The perforated proof-mass reduces stiction between the structure and the substrate and the unevenly distributed electrodes shorten the electrode length required for a given sensitivity. The polysilicon accelerometer has been fabricated by the conventional 6-mask surface-micromachining process and showes a sensitivity of 1.03mV/g with a hybrid detection circuitry.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.529-536
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• 2001

We investigate a surface-micromachined capacitive accelerometer with the grid-type electrodes surrounded by a perforated proof-mass frame. An electromechanical analysis of the microaccelerometer has been performed to obtain analytical formulae for natural frequency and output sensitivity response estimation. A set of prototype devices has been designed and fabricated based on a 4-mask surface-micromachining process. The resonant frequency of 5.8$\pm$0.17kHz and the detection sensitivity of 0.28$\pm$0.03mV/g have been measured from the fabricated devices. The parasitic capacitance of the detection circuit with a charge amplifier has been measured as 3.34$\pm$1.16pF. From the uncertainty analysis, we find that the major uncertainty in the natural frequency of the accelerometer comes from the micromachining error in the beam width patterning process. The major source of the sensitivity uncertainty includes uncertainty of the parasitic capacitance, the inter-electrode gap and the resonant frequency, contributing to the overall sensitivity uncertainty in the portions of 75%, 14% and 11%, respectively.