A dual frequency range integrated circuit accelerometer using capacitive and piezoelectric sensing techniques

Author

Blow, Brian A. ; Harjani, Ramesh ; Polla, Dennis L. ; Tamagawa, Takashi

Author_Institution

Medtronic, Inc., Minneapolis, MN, USA

fYear

1993

fDate

3-6 May 1993

Firstpage

1120

Abstract

An architecture for a silicon accelerometer is presented where two separate sensing techniques use a single micromachined cantilever beam. The accelerometer is capable of measuring over a range of ±10 G, with a resolution of 100 μG from DC to 300 Hz. Accelerations from DC to 0.25 Hz are measured by a capacitive sensor, while a piezoelectric sensor measures accelerations from 0.1 Hz to 300 Hz. The piezoelectric sensor is auto-zeroed in order to minimize the effects of charge leakage. The system is calibrated as a function of acceleration magnitude to reduce first-order nonlinearities

Keywords

accelerometers; capacitance measurement; electric sensing devices; elemental semiconductors; microsensors; piezoelectric transducers; silicon; 0 to 300 Hz; acceleration magnitude; capacitive sensor; charge leakage; first-order nonlinearities; integrated circuit accelerometer; micromachined cantilever beam; piezoelectric sensing techniques; sensing techniques; silicon accelerometer; Acceleration; Accelerometers; Capacitance; Capacitive sensors; Charge measurement; Current measurement; Frequency measurement; Integrated circuit measurements; Piezoelectric films; Structural beams;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Circuits and Systems, 1993., ISCAS '93, 1993 IEEE International Symposium on

Conference_Location

Chicago, IL

Print_ISBN

0-7803-1281-3

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/ISCAS.1993.393901

Filename

393901