Wafer-bonded, high dynamic range, single-crystalline silicon tunneling accelerometer

This paper presents a high-dynamic range (10/sup 6/ g) tunneling accelerometer fabricated using precision wafer bonding (< 1 um misalignment) and a wet-release process. This single-crystalline silicon cantilever device with no metal electrical interconnects on the cantilever shows superior long-term bias stability compared with previously reported surface-micromachined tunneling accelerometers. An ASIC control loop can also be integrated with the sensor for low-cost manufacturing.