A 5-BIT DIGITALLY OPERATED MEMS ACCELEROMETER Conference Paper uri icon

abstract

  • 2018 TRF This work presents an electrostatically tunable MEMS acceleration switch and its operation as a 5-bit digital accelerometer. The concept of operating tunable acceleration switches as digital MEMS accelerometers and a 2-bit prototype have been previously demonstrated [1]. Such devices only require bias voltages for operation (zero static power consumption) enabling significant power reduction by eliminating the need for an analog-front-end. This work demonstrates increased resolution (higher number of output bits) for such devices by successful fabrication and operation of digital accelerometers with up to 5-bits of resolution. The sensor consists of an acceleration switch (proof mass with an output contact electrode) surrounded by sets of electrostatic actuators each corresponding to one bit of the digital binary output (Fig. 1). Performing a binary search and activating different actuators in proper order (e.g. by a digital controller), the applied acceleration can be determined [1]. The tested 5-bit prototype shows good agreement between the applied acceleration and sensor output with resolution limited by the number of bits, i.e. 1/32 of the full-scale acceleration (159 mg and 62.5 mg for full-scale acceleration of 5.1g and 2g, respectively).

name of conference

  • 2018 Solid-State, Actuators, and Microsystems Workshop Technical Digest

published proceedings

  • 2018 Solid-State, Actuators, and Microsystems Workshop Technical Digest

author list (cited authors)

  • Abbasalipour, A., Kumar, V., Jafari, R., & Pourkamali, S.

citation count

  • 3

complete list of authors

  • Abbasalipour, A||Kumar, V||Jafari, R||Pourkamali, S

publication date

  • May 2018