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A resonant micro accelerometer based on electrostatic stiffness variation

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Abstract

A new out-of-plane resonant micro-machined accelerometer has been designed, modelled and fabricated. The sensing principle is based on the variation of the electrostatic stiffness of two torsional resonators mechanically coupled with an inertial proof mass. The accelerometer, fabricated by the ThELMA® surface micro-machining process of STMicroelectronics, constitutes a further step of a research focussing on the design of in-plane and out-of-plane resonant micro accelerometers. Preliminary electrostatic measures of the torsional resonators response have been compared with the theoretical predictions.

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Acknowledgements

This work was funded partially by “Fondazione Cariplo” in 2009 within the project “Surface Interactions in Micro and Nano Devices” and partially by PRIN09 2009XWLFKW “Multi-scale modelling of materials and structures”.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Politecnico di Milano, Piazza Leonardo da Vinci 32, 20133, Milano, Italy

    Claudia Comi, Alberto Corigliano & Aldo Ghisi

  2. AMS Group, STMicroelectronics, Via Tolomeo 1, 20010, Cornaredo, Italy

    Sarah Zerbini

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  1. Claudia Comi
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  2. Alberto Corigliano
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  3. Aldo Ghisi
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  4. Sarah Zerbini
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Correspondence to Claudia Comi.

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Comi, C., Corigliano, A., Ghisi, A. et al. A resonant micro accelerometer based on electrostatic stiffness variation. Meccanica 48, 1893–1900 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11012-013-9768-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11012-013-9768-x

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