A dual axis CMOS frontside bulk micromachined thermal accelerometer

We present a dual axis accelerometer made with a frontside bulk micromachining on a 0.35 μm CMOS. The accelerometer is based on thermal convection where a central heater creates a hot gas bubble. Acceleration applied to the body will change the temperature distribution on the device, the latter being measured by four detectors containing six serially connected thermocouples. The paper will present the modeling of the device as well as measurements of sensitivity, linearity and crossover.