• Journal of Power System Engineering
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• v.3 no.4
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• pp.57-62
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• 1999

The microaccelerometer using a tunnelling current effect concept has the potential of high performance, although it requires slightly complex signal-processing circuit for servo-system. The paddle of micro accelerometer is pulled to have the gap width of about 2nm which almost allows the flow tunnelling current. This paper demonstrates at capacitor of microaccelerometer the use of the coupled thermo-electric analysis for voltage, current, heat flux and Joule heating then tunnelling current flows. Two electrodes are applied to the microaccelerometer producing a unform difference of temperature gradient and electric potential between the paddle and the substrate.

• Journal of Power System Engineering
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.36-42
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• 2001

This paper deals with finite element analyses of residual stresses causing popping up which are induced in micromachining processes of a microaccelerometer sensors. The paddle of the micro accelerometer sensor is designed symmetric with respect to the direction of the beam. After heating the tunnel gap up to 100 degree and get it through the cooling process and the additional beam up to 80 degree and get it through the cooling process. We learn the thermal internal stresses of each shape and compare the results with each other, after heating the tunnel gap up to 400 degree during the Pt deposition process. Finally we find the optimal shape which is able to minimize the internal stresses of microaccelerometer sensor. We want to seek after the real cause of this pop up phenomenon and diminish this by change manufacturing processes of microaccelerometer sensor by electrostatic force.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Machine Tool Engineers
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.12-18
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• 2002

Silicon on insulator(SOI) wafer is used in a variety of microsensor applications in which thermal deformations and other mechanical effects may dominate device Performance. One of major Problems associated with the manufacturing Processes of the microaccelerometer based on the tunneling current concept is thermal deformations and thermal stresses. This paper deals with finite element analysis(FEA) of residual thermal deformations causing popping up, which are induced in micrormaching processes of a microaccelerometer. The reason for this Popping up phenomenon in manufacturing processes of microaccelerometer may be the bending of the whole wafer or it may come from the way the underetching occurs. We want to seek after the real cause of this popping up phenomenon and diminish this by changing manufacturing processes of mic개accelerometer. In microaccelerometer manufacturing process, this paper intend to find thermal deformation change of the temperature distribution by tunnel gap and additional beams. The thermal behaviors analysis intend to use ANSYS V5.5.3.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers C
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• v.51 no.4
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• pp.169-174
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• 2002

This paper presents a high-resolution capactive microaccelerometer using branched finger electrodes with high-amplitude sense voltage. From the fabricated microacceleromcter, the total noise is obtained as 9 $\mu\textrm{g}$/√Hz at the sense voltage of 16.5V, while the conventional microaccelerometers have shown the noire level of 25~800 $\mu\textrm{g}$/√Hz. We reduce the mechanical noise level of the microaccelerometer by increasing the proof-class based on deep RIE process of an SOI wafer. We reduce the electrical noise level by increasing the amplitude of AC sense voltage. The nonlinearity problem caused by the high-amplitude sense volage has been solved by a new electrode design of branched finger type, resulting in self force-balancing effects for the enhanced linearity and bandwidth. The fabricated microaccelerometer shows the electrical noise of 2.4 $\mu\textrm{g}$/√Hz at the sense voltage of 16.5V, which is an order of magnitude reduction of the electrical noise of 24.3 $\mu\textrm{g}$/√Hz measured at 0.9V. For the sense voltage higher than 2V, the electrical noise of the microaccelerometer is lower than the voltage-independent mechanical noise of 11 $\mu\textrm{g}$/√Hz. Total noise, composed of the electrical noise and the mechanical noire, has been measured as 9 $\mu\textrm{g}$/√Hz at the sense voltage of 16.5V, which is 31% of the total noise of 28.6 $\mu\textrm{g}$/√Hz at the sense voltage 0.9V. The self force-balancing effect in the blanched finger electrodes increases the stiffness of the microaccelerometer from 1.1N/m to 1.61N/m as the sense voltage increases from 0V to 17.8V, thereby generating additional stiffness at the rate of 0.0016$\pm$0.0008 N/m/V$^2$.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Manufacturing Technology Engineers
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• v.9 no.5
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• pp.105-111
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• 2000

Micronization of sensor is a trend of the silicon sensor development with regard to a piezoresistive silicon pressure sensor, the size of the pressure sensor diaphragm have become smaller year by year, and a microaccelerometer with a size less than 200~300${\mu}{\textrm}{m}$ has been realized. Over the past four or five years, numerical modeling of microsensors and microstructures has gradually been developed as a field of microelectromechanical system(MEMS) design process. In this paper, we study some of the micromachining processes of single crystal silicon(SCS) for the microaccelerometer, and their subsequent processes which might affect thermal and mechanical loads. The finite element method(FEM) has been a standard numerical modeling technique extensively utilized in structural engineering discipline for component design of microaccelerometer. Temperature rise sufficiently low at the suspended beams. Instead, larger temperature gradient can be seen at the bottom of paddle part. The center of paddle part becomes about 5~2$0^{\circ}C$ higher than the corner of paddle and suspended beam edges.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2001.06c
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• pp.53-58
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• 2001

This paper presents a high resolution capacitive microaccelerometer for applications to personal information systems. We reduce the mechanical noise level of the microaccelerometer by increasing the proof-mass based on deep RIE process. We reduce the electrical noise level by increasing the amplitude of an AC sense voltage. The high sense voltage is obtained by DC-to-DC voltage multiplier. In order to solve the nonlinearity problem caused by the high sense voltage, we modify the conventional comb electrode of straight finger type into that of branched finger type, resulting in self force-balancing effects for enhanced detection linearity. The proposed branched finger capacitive microaccelerometer was fabricated by the deep RIE process of an SOI wafer. The fabricated microaccelerometer reduces the electrical noise at the level of $2.4{\mu}g/\sqrt{Hz}$ for the sense voltage of l6.5V, which is 10.1 times smaller than the electrical noise level of $24.3{\mu}g/\sqrt{Hz}$ at 0.9V. For the sense voltage higher than 2V, the electrical noise level of the microaccelerometer became smaller than the constant mechanical noise level of $11{\mu}g/\sqrt{Hz}$. Total noise level, including the electrical noise and the mechanical noise, has been measured as $9{\mu}g/\sqrt{Hz}$ for the sense voltage of 16.5V, which is 3.2 times smaller than the total noise of $28.6{\mu}g/\sqrt{Hz}$ for the sense voltage of 0.9V. The self force-balancing effect results in the increased stiffness of 1.98 N/m at the sense voltage of 17.8V, compared to the stiffness of 1.35 N/m at 0V, thereby generating the additional stiffness at the rate of $0.002N/m/V^{2}$.

• Journal of Advanced Marine Engineering and Technology
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.631-635
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• 2001

The major problems associated with the manufacturing processes of the microaccelerometer based on the tunneling current concept is the residual stress. This paper deals with finite element analysis of residual stress causing pop up phenomenon which are induced in micromachining processes for a microaccelerometers sensor using silicon on insulator(SOI) wafer. After heating the tunnel gap up to $100^{\circ}C$and get it through cooling process and the additional beam up to $80^{\circ}C$get it through the cooling process. We learn the residual stress of each shape and compare the results with each other, after heating the tunnel gap up to $400^{\circ}Cduring$ the Pt deposition process. The equivalent stresses produced during the heating process of focused ion beam(FIB) cut was also to be about $0.02~0.25Pa/^{\circ}C$and cooling process the gradient of residual stresses of about $8.4\{times}10^2Pa/{\mu}m$ still at cantilever beam and connected part of paddle. We want to seek after the real cause of this pop up phenomenon and diminish this by change manufacturing processes of microaccelerometer sensors.

• 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.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.1-10
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• 2004

This paper presents a navigation garde capacitive microaccelerometer, whose low-noise high-resolution detection capability is achieved by a new electrode design based on a high-amplitude anti-phase sense voltage. We reduce the mechanical noise of the microaccelerometer to the level of 5.5$\mu\textrm{g}$/(equation omitted) by increasing the proof-mass based on deep RIE process of an SOI wafer. We reduce the electrical noise as low as 0.6$\mu\textrm{g}$/(equation omitted) by using an anti-phase high-amplitude square-wave sense voltage of 19V. The nonlinearity problem caused by the high-amplitude sense voltage is solved by a new electrode design of branched finger type. Combined use of the branched finger electrode and high-amplitude sense voltage generates self force-balancing effects, resulting in an 140％ increase of the bandwidth from 726㎐ to 1,734㎐. For a fixed sense voltage of 10V, the total noise is measured as 2.6$\mu\textrm{g}$/(equation omitted) at the air pressure of 3.9torr, which is the 51％ of the total noise of 5.1$\mu\textrm{g}$/(equation omitted) at the atmospheric pressure. From the excitation test using 1g, 10㎐ sinusoidal acceleration, the signal-to-noise ratio of the fabricated microaccelerometer is measured as 105㏈, which is equivalent to the noise level of 5.7$\mu\textrm{g}$/(equation omitted). The sensitivity and linearity of the branched finger capacitive microaccelerometer are measured as 0.638V/g and 0.044％, respectively.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Automotive Engineers
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• v.4 no.5
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• pp.9-15
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• 1996

A silicon microaccelerometer is designed and fabricated using silicon epitaxial layers for automotive electronic airbag applications. A cantilever structure is chosen for high sensitivity and piezoresistive detection method is adopted for circuit simplicity and low cost. An optimum design is used to find optimum microstructure sizes for maximum sensitivity subject to performance requirements and design constraints on natural frequency, damping ratio, maximum allowable stress and microfabrication limitations. The microaccelerometer is fabricated by micromachining processing steps, composed of material-selective and orientation-dependent chemical etching techniques. Fabricated prototype shows a sensitivity of 88.6$\mu\textrm{V}$/g within a resonant frequency of 1.75KHz. Estimated performance of the microaccelerometer is compared with measured one. Discrepancy between the theoretical values and the experimental values is discussed together with possible sources of the errors.