A silicon based low-g MEMS inertial switch for linear acceleration sensing application

Most of the MEMS inertial switches developed in recent years are intended for shock and impact sensing above 40 g. These switches are fabricated based on non-silicon surface micromachining with multiple steps of electroplating. In this paper, a silicon based low-g inertial switch typically used for linear acceleration sensing is designed and fabricated. The inertial switch consists of a high volume proof mass and low stiffness spiral spring and is fabricated on a special designed double-buried layer SOI wafer with standard silicon micromachining. The measurements results show that the threshold value is about 7.42 g which is in accordance with FEM calculation.