MEMS Accelerometer With Two Thin Film Piezoelectric Read-Out

SUN Bohua, ZHANG Rui

Cape Peninsula University of Technology, Smart Structure and MEMS Lab, Cape Town, 7535,

South Africa, sunb@cput.ac.za and Jinan University, , Guangzhou, China, tbhsun@jnu.edu.cn

Abstract: MEMS accelerometer using piezoelectric lead zirconate titanate (PZT) thin films as read-

out have been attracted a great attention due to their simple structures and high sensitivity. This paper

proposed a model of microeccelerometer with two suspended flexural PZT-on-silicon beams and a

central proof mass configuration. The geometry and elastic properties of the thin films have been

taken into account when formulating the acceleration-equation. To verify which vibration mode is the

dominate one on the acceleration, mode analysis has been carried out by using MEMS software:

CoventorWare. The analytical equation between charge and acceleration has been derived, which

provides an opportunity to design the accelerometer. The research shown the proposed accelerometer

is simple to manufacturing, liable, for large g conditions and wide frequency response.

Key words: Piezoelectric accelerometer; MEMS; Sensitivity; Lead zirconate titanate (PZT) thin film

1Proceedings of the 2005 International Conference on MEMS, NANO and Smart Systems (ICMENS’05) 0-7695-2398-6/05 $20.00 © 2005 IEEE