Inertial-grade out-of-plane and in-plane differential resonant silicon accelerometers (DRXLs)

Inertial-grade vertical-type and lateral-type differential resonant accelerometers (DRXL) are designed, fabricated and tested for navigation application, using one mask process. The accelerometers consist of an out-of-plane (for z-axis) accelerometer and in-plane (for x, y-axes) accelerometers. The sensing principle of the accelerometer is based on gap-sensitive electrostatic stiffness changing effect. It says that the natural frequency of the accelerometer can be changed according to an electrostatic force on the proof mass of the accelerometer. The out-of-plane resonant accelerometer shows bias stability of 2.5 μg, sensitivity of 70 Hz/g and bandwidth of 100 Hz at resonant frequency of 12 kHz. The in-plane resonant accelerometer shows bias stability of 5.2 μg, sensitivity of 128 Hz/g and bandwidth of 110 Hz at resonant frequency of 23.4 kHz. The measured performance of two accelerometers are suitable for an application of inertial navigation.