title: Design, fabrication and levitation experiments of a micromachined electrostatically suspended six-axis accelerometer.
abstract: A micromachined electrostatically suspended six-axis accelerometer, with a square plate as proof mass housed by a top stator and bottom stator, is presented. The device structure and related techniques concerning its operating principles, such as calculation of capacitances and electrostatic forces/moments, detection and levitation control of the proof mass, acceleration measurement, and structural parameters design, are described. Hybrid MEMS manufacturing techniques, including surface micromachining fabrication of thin film electrodes and interconnections, integration fabrication of thick nickel structures about 500 μm using UV-LIGA by successful removal of SU-8 photoresist mold, DRIE of silicon proof mass in thickness of 450 μm, microassembly and solder bonding, were employed to fabricate this prototype microdevice. A levitation experiment system for the fabricated microaccelerometer chip is introduced, and levitation results show that fast initial levitation within 10 ms and stable full suspension of the proof mass have been successfully demonstrated.
authors.affiliation: National Key Laboratory of Science and Technology on Nano/Micro Fabrication Technology, Research Institute of Micro/Nano Science and Technology, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, 800 Dongchuan Road, Shanghai 200240, China. sdcuifeng@163.com
authors.forename: Feng
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Cui
authors.forename: Wu
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Wenyuan
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Weiping
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Xiaosheng
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Wu
mesh_terms: D004566:Electrodes; D004867:Equipment Design; D055672:Static Electricity