Date of Award
9-27-2023
Publication Type
Thesis
Degree Name
M.A.Sc.
Department
Mechanical, Automotive, and Materials Engineering
Keywords
Accelerometer;Design;MEMS;Sensitivity;Serpentine;Spring Constant
Supervisor
Jalal Ahamed
Rights
info:eu-repo/semantics/embargoedAccess
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Abstract
Microelectromechanical system (MEMS) accelerometers are an essential component in modern electronics; in devices such as smartphones, tablets, and game controllers. The MEMS accelerometer with a serpentine spring is a specific type of accelerometer that has been developed into improve the sensitivity and reliability of the device. Inside the chips, it includes components such as mass, electrodes, anchors, and detectors. Ways to increase the device’s sensitivity vary from design to design. This research paper; presents design, fabrication, numerical and analytical modeling techniques for optimizing MEMS accelerometer device sensitivity with serpentine springs. Different serpentine spring geometric parameters such as, length, width, number of folds, starting length, and ending length, are investigated for their impact on the spring constant and device sensitivity. A new numerical analysis was performed for the spring constant formula that better suits the springs placed at 45 degrees. COMSOL modeling was performed in Multiphysics by simulating the accelerometer device under real-life acceleration force, which resulted in an eigenfrequency value of 2407.7 Hz. A serpentine MEMS chip was fabricated to capture the dynamic response of the accelerometer and to observe the difference between the theoretical and experimental results. The newer serpentine model showed a sensitivity of 43.69 μm/g in the direction of motion and a spring constant of 33.36 N/m. The design, modeling, analysis, and fabrication presented in this thesis can further aid the advancement and development of MEMS accelerometers with serpentine springs for acceleration applications.
Recommended Citation
Li, Yanyu, "Serpentine Spring Design for Sensitivity Enhancement of Dual-Axis Capacitive MEMS Accelerometer" (2023). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 9272.
https://scholar.uwindsor.ca/etd/9272