Design and Characterization of a Novel High-g Accelerometer

S. Heß, R. Külls, and S. Nau
Fraunhofer Ernst-Mach-Institut
Efringen-Kirchen, Germany
Published in 2011

The Fraunhofer Ernst-Mach-Institute (EMI) developed a novel, high-g accelerometer, which is an undamped MEMS device, containing self-supporting piezoresistive elements. The main requirements for such a sensor are high sensitivity, high resonant frequency and a solid mechanical design. Due to the fact, that pure analytic analyses cannot cover all multi-physical aspects of such a complex device the numerical tool COMSOL, in which the coupling of different domains is already implemented, is used.

During the development of the accelerometer COMSOL has been employed in two different ways. First, it was used to determine the electro-mechanical and thermal properties of the piezoresistive elements on wafer-level. Secondly it has been applied to optimize single sensor devices in detail.