Optimal Design of Capacitive Micro Cantilever Beam Accelerometer

Abstract

This study presents the behavior of a micro cantilever beam accelerometer under electrostatic actuation by using the analytical and numerical method. The objective of this study is to determine optimal design of capacitive micro cantilever beam accelerometer in term of reducing the beam deflection with respect to applied acceleration but keeping the distance between electrodes. The structure contains proof mass which is suspended between fixed rigid electrodes to provide differential capacitance measurements. ANSYS ® is used for finite element analysis (FEA) modeling and simulation. The analytical modeling is done by using C programming. Three dimensional modeling is done for six different loading conditions in order to come out with the optimal design. The results obtained from both the analytical and finite element models are found to be in excellent agreement.