Reliability based Design of MEMS Accelerometer Considering Residual Stress and Temperature Variations

This work presents the design and system level simulations of a reliable dual axis capacitive MEMS accelerometer. The reliability of accelerometer is analyzed with respect to temperature and residual stresses. The temperature reliability of proposed MEMS accelerometer allows it to work in temperature range of -40 °C to 100 °C. The residual stresses are characterized by FEM simulations to observe their effect on frequency of system. The simulation results show that the effect of residual stresses on the performance characteristics of MEMS accelerometer is negligible and can be ignored. The device is integrated with readout circuit to observe the variation in capacitance for various input accelerations. The proposed MEMS accelerometer can detect an input acceleration in the range of ± 50 g and has a capacitive sensitivity of 38 fF/g.