Design and implementation of SOI based capacitive microaccelerometers without notching effects

We report our efforts towards designing and fabricating capacitive microaccelerometers with flat bottom surfaces free from the notching effects of Deep Reactive Ion Etching (DRIE) based on SOI process. The substrate layer under the device structure is etched and a metal film is deposited to the backside of moving structure for protecting the bottom surfaces so that the stiction problem and notching effects are avoided. The test results demonstrate that SOI accelerometers have been released successfully. The measured sensitivity is 169.1mV/g and the linearity of output is within 0.202%.