Title :
A reel-to-reel compatible printed accelerometer
Author :
Klejwa, N. ; Hennessy, R.G. ; Chen, J.-W.P. ; Howe, R.T.
Author_Institution :
Dept. of Electr. Eng., Stanford Univ., Stanford, CA, USA
Abstract :
This paper describes the fabrication and testing of a one-axis polymer-based capacitive accelerometer made using a reel-to-reel/roll-to-roll compatible, printing-based process. The accelerometer is a suspended parallel-plate sense capacitor made from a laser-printed polystyrene composite material on a flexible plastic substrate. With a simple analog voltage readout circuit, device sensitivity is 58mV/g with +/-1.5g range. This device demonstrates fabrication of ultra-low-cost MEMS sensors on flexible polymer substrates.
Keywords :
accelerometers; capacitive sensors; capacitors; composite materials; microfabrication; microsensors; plastics; polymers; analog voltage readout circuit; flexible plastic substrate; flexible polymer substrate; laser-printed polystyrene composite material; one-axis polymer-based capacitive accelerometer; parallel-plate sense capacitor; reel-to-reel-roll-to-roll compatible printing-based process; ultra-low-cost MEMS sensor fabrication; Acceleration; Accelerometers; Capacitance; Fabrication; Gold; Micromechanical devices; Substrates; Reel to reel; accelerometer; large area; plastic; polymer; roll to roll;
Conference_Titel :
Solid-State Sensors, Actuators and Microsystems Conference (TRANSDUCERS), 2011 16th International
Conference_Location :
Beijing
Print_ISBN :
978-1-4577-0157-3
DOI :
10.1109/TRANSDUCERS.2011.5969203
