(Invited) A 1-mG MEMS Sensor

Abstract

This paper presents a 1-mG MEMS (microelectromechanical systems) capacitive inertial sensor developed by multi-layer metal technology. The sensor is designed to detect acceleration below 1 mG. A proof-of-concept device is fabricated by using a post-CMOS gold electroplating process. Measurement results suggest that the actual Brownian noise (BN ) is estimated to be lower than the target BN of 1 μG/Hz1/2. Acceleration responses are also experimentally evaluated, which shows the potential of sensing acceleration below 1 mG. Those results reveal that the proposed sensor design could be a promising way to improve the sensitivity and the sensing range of integrated CMOS-MEMS accelerometers