High-Sensitivity Accelerometer Based on Cold Emission Principle

Abstract

A possibility for fabrication of a high-sensitivity accelerometer is considered. The linear acceleration of a sensor causes displacement of the proof mass electrode. The displacement detector is based on a strong dependence of the tunneling or cold emission current on the gap between the electrodes. The geometry of the electrodes that provides the best sensitivity is determined. The accelerometer with tunneling-emission electrodes is fabricated. At frequencies up to 5 kHz the resolution reaches 10 4 g Hz 1 2 in the tunneling mode and 10 3 g Hz 1 2 in the emission mode.

A nanomechanical system with piezoelectric actuation of a GaAs microbeam

“…Corresponding experimental data demonstrated the efficiency of the obtained microstructure and adequacy of theoretical modelling. The proposed design can be used as a drive of the feedback loop for keeping the controlled nanometre-size gap between electrodes, which is desired for the implementation of various primary MEMS sensors [13].…”

Fabrication and characterization of stress‐free microbeams for MEMS applications

“…A new type of miniature accelerometer has been investigated recently [6]. The sensor operates, both, in the tunnelling and in the cold-emission mode of the current transfer.…”

“…In order to determine the optimum geometry of the cold-emission displacement transducer, theoretical calculations have been performed [6]. They show that, to provide the maximum sensitivity of the coldemission accelerometer, it is better to use nearly flat electrodes, i.e.…”

“…Their shape is close to the ideal cylinder of radius r = 60 µm with the measured roughness 3 nm. At frequencies up to 6 kHz the resolution of the sensor was about 10 -4 g/Hz 1/2 in the tunnelling mode and about 10 -3 g/Hz 1/2 in the emission mode [6]. The sensor could operate in the emission mode with switched off feedback.…”

Quantum Tunneling in Mesoscopic Electromechanical Transducers

“…Several designs for micromachined sensors augmented with quantum tunneling transducers have been reported (Patra & Bhattacharyya, 2009;Shashkin et al, 2004;Vopilkin et al, 2012Vopilkin et al, , 2014. It is notable, that resonant tunneling diodes may also be treated as quantum tunneling transducers (Xiong, Mao, Zhang, Wang, 2009;Zhang, Guo, Tang, Liu & Wang, 2012).…”