• 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 $0.002N/m/V^{2}$.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2004.10a
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• pp.756-759
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• 2004

We present a piezoelectric actuator using stiffness control and stroke amplification mechanism in order to make large lateral displacement. In this work, we suggest stiffness control approach that generates lateral displacement by increasing the vertical stiffness and reducing the lateral stiffness using additional structure. In addition, an additional structure of a serpentine spring amplifies the lateral displacement like leverage structure. The suggested lateral PZT actuator (bellows actuator) consists of serpentine spring and PZT/electrode layer which is located at the edge of the serpentine spring. The edge of the serpentine spring prevents the vertical motion of PZT layer, while the other edge of the serpentine spring makes stroke amplification like leverage structure. We have determined dimensions of the bellows actuator using ANSYS simulation. Length, width and thickness of PZT layer are 135$\mu$m, 20$\mu$m and 0.4$\mu$m, respectively. Dimensions of the silicon serpentine spring are thickness of 25$\mu$m, length of 300$\mu$m, and width of 5$\mu$m. The bellows actuator has been fabricated by SOI wafer with 25$\mu$m-top silicon and 1$\mu$m-buried oxide layer. The bellows actuator shows the maximum 3.93$\pm$0.2$\mu$m lateral displacement at 16V with 1Hz sinusoidal voltage input. In the frequency response test, the fabricated bellows actuator showed consistent displacement from 1Hz to 1kHz at 10V. From experimental study, we found the bellows actuator using thin film PZT and silicon serpentine spring generated mainly laterally displacement not vertical displacement at 16V, and serpentine spring played role of stroke amplification.

• 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.

• 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$.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.26 no.10
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• pp.2187-2193
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• 2002

We present a novel method for 3D microfabrication with LIGA process that utilizes a deep X-ray mask in which a micro-actuator is integrated. The integrated micro-actuator oscillates the X-ray absorber, which is formed on the shuttle mass of the micro-actuator, during X-ray exposures to modify the absorbed dose profile in X-ray resist, typically PMMA. 3D PMMA microstructures according to the modulated dose contour are revealed after GG development. An X-ray mask with integrated comb drive actuator is fabricated using deep reactive ion etching, absorber electroplating, and bulk micromachining with silicon-on-insulator (SOI) wafer. 1mm $\times$ 1 mm, 20 $\mu$m thick silicon shuttle mass as a mask blank is supported by four 1 mm long suspension beams and is driven by the comb electrodes. A 10 $\mu$m thick, 50 $\mu$m line and spaced gold absorber pattern is electroplated on the shuttle mass before the release step. The fundamental frequency and amplitude are around 3.6 kHz and 20 $\mu$m, respectively, for a do bias of 100 V and an ac bias of 20 $V_{p-p}$ (peak-peak). Fabricated PMMA microstructure shows 15.4 $\mu$m deep, S-shaped cross section in the case of 1.6 kJ $cm^{-3}$ surface dose and GG development at 35$^{\circ}C$ for 40 minutes.