A Piezo-Capacitive BAW Accelerometer with Extended Dynamic Range using a Gap-Changing Moving Electrode

Anosh Daruwalla, Haoran Wen, Chang-Shun Liu, Hoon Jeong, Farrokh Ayazi

Abstract:	We present for the first time, a frequency-output resonant accelerometer based on the electrostatic softening effect in a bulk acoustic wave (BAW) resonator. The concept of a moving electrode is proposed to enable a self-acting linear range extension for the accelerometer. The device is fabricated in a combined piezoelectric and capacitive HARPSS platform and uses a moving capacitive electrode with nanoscale gaps (100-200nm) to extend its dynamic range. This novel moving electrode mechanism allows large scale factor for low acceleration range, at the same time reduces nonlinear gap-closing behavior at high acceleration range, thereby improving the dynamic range by a few orders of magnitude.
Published in:	2018 IEEE/ION Position, Location and Navigation Symposium (PLANS) April 23 - 26, 2018 Hyatt Regency Hotel Monterey, CA
Pages:	283 - 287
Cite this article:	Daruwalla, Anosh, Wen, Haoran, Liu, Chang-Shun, Jeong, Hoon, Ayazi, Farrokh, "A Piezo-Capacitive BAW Accelerometer with Extended Dynamic Range using a Gap-Changing Moving Electrode," 2018 IEEE/ION Position, Location and Navigation Symposium (PLANS), Monterey, CA, April 2018, pp. 283-287.
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