System level simulation and fabrication of SOI-MEMS differential Capacitive accelerometer

Veena. S; H.L  Suresh; Newton  Rai; Veerapandi  N; Veda Sandeep  Nagaraj

doi:10.6180/jase.202403_27(3).0012

System level simulation and fabrication of SOI-MEMS differential Capacitive accelerometer

Electrical Engineering Mechanical Engineering

Veena.S¹ This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., H.L Suresh², Newton Rai³, Veerapandi N⁴, Veda Sandeep Nagaraj⁵

¹Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Nitte Meenakshi Institute of Technology, Bangalore

²Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Sir.M Visvesvaraya Institute of Technology, Bangalore

³Mechanical Department, University of Colorado Boulder

⁴Centre for Nano Science and Engineering(CeNSE), Indian Institute of Science(IISc), Bangalore

⁵Tyndall National Institute, University College Cork, Ireland

Received: December 13, 2022
Accepted: June 21, 2023
Publication Date: September 1, 2023

Copyright The Author(s). This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are cited.

Download Citation: ||https://doi.org/10.6180/jase.202403_27(3).0012

This study primarily covers the design and development of an MEMS based accelerometer. Frequency, displacement sensitivity, and capacitance are the subject of analytical modelling; the corresponding values are found to be 7.41kHz, 4.5096∗10−9 m/g, and 0.289pF respectively. COMSOL Multiphysics is used to design the structure of accelerometer and the MATLAB simulator tool is used to analyse the accelerometer. In order to obtain precise results, simulations are done and theoretical calculations are compared. Silicon-on-Insulator Multi-User MEMS Processes (SOIMUMPS) technology is employed to fabricate the accelerometer structure at MEMSCAP foundry, United State. The characterization of the fabricated device is done at CENSE, IISc, Bangalore. The capacitance values on either side of the device obtained from the test results are 0.36pF and 0.85pF when 5 V is applied to the electrodes. The proposed accelerometer is employed in the actuating parts of the sensor due to its properties like linearity and low sensitivity.

Keywords: MEMs Capacitive Accelerometer, COMSOL, SOI MUMPS, Fabrication, Characterisation, Sensitivity

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