MEMS Inertial Switch for Power Management of Environmental Vibration Monitoring

Power management technology is a fundamental issue in environmental vibration monitoring. In this paper, we propose a power management scheme using a MEMS inertial switch to minimize power consumption and maximize lifetime of environmental vibration monitoring system. The MEMS inertial switch integrates detecting and controlling systems with no power consumption. A prototype with unidirectional sensitivity is designed and fabricated based on bulk micromachining technology. The switch die (5.8×5.8×0.55mm3) is packaged and tested. As an 80g half-sine-wave acceleration was applied, the response time and contact time are about 0.37ms and 49ms, respectively. The contact resistance is no more than 6& Omega;. These indicate the switch has the advantages of miniature, high sensitivity and good contact effect which are suitable for the applications in power management of environmental vibration monitoring.