Current Capabilities of MEMS Capacitive Accelerometers in a Harsh Environment

Author

Stauffer, J.-M.

Author_Institution

Colibrys SA

Volume

21

Issue

11

fYear

2006

Firstpage

29

Lastpage

32

Abstract

One of the general trends of the MEMS sensors business is the utilization of the technology to satisfy harsh environment requirements (temperature, shock, vibration, environment security). The conjunction of material (standard silicon, SiC or SOI), with complex micromachining techniques and advanced assembly techniques are the key to provide robust sensors with a minimum concession on specification. The goal of this paper is to present progress on gun hard (>20,000 g) and wide temperature range MEMS accelerometers (-120degC to +180degC). Concrete solutions and results (out of more than 500 tested products) will be presented and discussed in detail

Keywords

accelerometers; assembling; capacitive sensors; micromachining; microsensors; silicon compounds; silicon-on-insulator; -120 to 180 C; MEMS capacitive accelerometers; MEMS sensors; SOI; SiC; assembly techniques; environment security; harsh environment requirements; micromachining techniques; shock; standard silicon; temperature; vibration; Accelerometers; Assembly; Building materials; Electric shock; Micromachining; Micromechanical devices; Robustness; Security; Silicon carbide; Temperature sensors;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Aerospace and Electronic Systems Magazine, IEEE

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0885-8985

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/MAES.2006.284356

Filename

4062974