Design and System Modeling of a Tri-Axial Microaccelerometer Using Piezoelectric Thin Films

This study presents the system modeling of a tri-axial microaccelerometer that consists of a quadri-beam suspension, a seismic mass, and displacement transducers using piezoelectric thin films. Both ends of the seismic mass are supported by two suspension beams. Therefore, the out-of-plane acceleration will result in a symmetric bend, and in-plane accelerations will produce asymmetric bend and torsion. The electrodes are configured and interconnected to measure one out-of-plane acceleration and two in-plane accelerations selectively. Resonant frequency and sensor sensitivities to triaxial acceleration are investigated using FEM analysis. Sensitivity study of major dimensional parameters are presented for sensor design.