Title :
A novel accelerometer based on a silicon thermopile
Author :
Hiratsuka, R. ; van Duyn, D.C. ; Otaredian, T. ; de Vries, P.
Author_Institution :
Dept. of Electr. Eng., Delft Univ. of Technol., Netherlands
Abstract :
An accelerometer based on a silicon thermopile in a cantilever beam structure is presented. The principle is that the motion of a cantilever beam, induced by the accelerations of the chip, results in temperature variations. The mathematical model for both the thermal sensitivity and the thermal time response reasonably conformed to the experimental results. It is deduced that the sensitivity can be increased by choosing a smaller gap; the sensitivity can be 1.3% per unit g, which compares with capacitive accelerometers; and the thermal time constant is in the range of 10 to 18 ms, according the theoretical model, which is consistent with the experiments.<>
Keywords :
accelerometers; electric sensing devices; elemental semiconductors; semiconductor device models; silicon; thermopiles; Si themopile; accelerometer; cantilever beam structure; elemental semiconductor; mathematical model; temperature variations; thermal sensitivity; thermal time response; Acceleration; Accelerometers; Heat sinks; Heat transfer; Infrared sensors; Silicon; Structural beams; Temperature sensors; Thermal resistance; Thermal sensors;
Conference_Titel :
Solid-State Sensors and Actuators, 1991. Digest of Technical Papers, TRANSDUCERS '91., 1991 International Conference on
Conference_Location :
San Francisco, CA, USA
Print_ISBN :
0-87942-585-7
DOI :
10.1109/SENSOR.1991.148901
