A new z-axis capacitive accelerometer with high impact durability

Abstract

This paper reports a newly developed z-axis capacitive accelerometer with high durability to impacts. Our accelerometer has a unique sensing mechanism by which the displacement of an inertial mass caused by an acceleration in the z-axis direction is converted into the rotational displacement of a pair of detection plates. Our accelerometer has a high degree of design freedom in terms of selecting the resonant frequency and sensitivity. While maintaining a constant sensitivity, the resonance frequency and etching hole within the detection plate were designed so as to have an appropriate damping effect. As a result, it achieved an output saturation level higher than 5000 G under the impact acceleration of 5 kHz.