Design and Fabrication of a Differential MOEMS Accelerometer Based on Fabry–Pérot Micro-Cavities

In this paper, a differential micro-opto-electro-mechanical system (MOEMS) accelerometer based on the Fabry-Pérot (FP) micro-cavities is presented. The optical system of the device consists of two FP cavities and the mechanical system is composed of a proof mass that is suspended by four springs. The applied acceleration tends to move the PM from its resting position. This mechanical displacement can be measured by the FP interferometer formed between the proof mass cross-section and the optical fiber end-face. The proposed sensor is fabricated on a silicon-on-insulator wafer using the bulk micromachining method. The results of the sensor characterization show that the accelerometer has a linear response in the range of $\boldsymbol {\pm }1\text{g}$ . Also, the optical sensitivity and resolution of the sensor in the static characterization are 6.52 nm/g and $153 \boldsymbol {\mu }\text{g}$ . The sensor sensitivity in the power measurement is 49.6 mV/g and its resonant frequency is at 1372 Hz. Using the differential measurement method increases the sensitivity of the accelerometer. Based on the experimental data, the optical sensitivity in static mode is two times as high as that of a similar MOEMS accelerometer with one FP cavity.