Long-term vibration characteristics of MEMS inertial sensors by multi-layer metal technology

This paper presents the long-term vibration characteristics of MEMS inertial sensors developed by multi-layer metal technology based on gold electroplating. We evaluate the change of resonant frequencies of the MEMS inertial sensors and tip displacements of multi-layer metal cantilevers during long-term vibration tests. The vibration tests employ a cyclic input acceleration with the amplitude of 1G. The experimental results show that the inertial sensors have a mechanical tolerance to the vibration up to 10
⁷
cycles. Moreover, the cantilever tests suggest that the structure stability of multi-layer metal devices could be higher when the structure thickness becomes thicker. In conclusion, we confirmed that the Ti/Au multi-layer metal structures can be promising components for MEMS inertial sensors.