Simulation and analysis of cantilever-membrane structure for piezoresistive micro-accelerometers

Dynamic and static performances are the most important parameters for accelerometers. The natural frequency decides the sensor's working frequency band, and the accompanying stress represents the measurement sensitivity. In this paper, a novel sensing structure, cantilever-membrane structure, for piezoresistive accelerometers is studied, in order to detect the structural dimension's effect on the sensor. With the help of FEM (Finite element method) software, the first order natural frequency of the cantilever-membrane based accelerometer is investigated with the different combinations of membrane's dimensions. The accompanying stress of the sensing structure is also simulated in this paper. The results show that the membrane's dimensions affect the frequency and stress more tempestuously when the membrane is short, but the tendency become gentle when the width of the membrane increases.