Design and Modeling of Differential Capacitive Hexagonal Beam Based MEMS Accelerometer

In this study, we designed a differential capacitive-based MicroElecto-Mechanical System (MEMS) accelerometer with hexagonal suspension springs. We utilized standard silicon-on-insulator (SOI) technology with a 30
$\boldsymbol{\mu}\mathbf{m}$
structural layer thickness. The proposed device was modeled using the MEMS + numerical tool to characterize various performance characteris-tics. The MEMS accelerometer exhibits an in-plane mode natural frequency of 874.96 Hz, with mechanical and capacitive sensitiv-ities of 0.324
$\mu m/g$
and 0.321 pF/g for an input acceleration of
$\pm 5g$
, respectively. Furthermore, we investigated the influence of hexagonal beam width on the natural frequency, quality factor, mechanical sensitivity, capacitive sensitivity, bandwidth, and pull-in voltage. It was observed that the choice of beam width significantly influences the performance characteristics of the proposed device. Further, a comparison was made with the accelerometer utilizing an equivalent uniform rectangular suspension spring. From the obtained results, it has been ob-served that the accelerometer with hexagonal suspension springs provides greater flexibility in measuring low-g applications. Hence, this work provides valuable insights for optimizing future MEMS accelerometer designs to meet the diverse application requirements.