High-damped accelerometer based on squeeze-film damping and piezoresistive nanogauge detection for vibrating environments

This paper reports the conception, the fabrication and the electrical testing of an overdamped silicon accelerometer dedicated to vibrating environments. Squeeze-film damping effects are implemented to drastically reduce the mechanical component bandwidth while keeping a satisfactory resolution. Mechanical filtering of vibrations above 3 Hz is expected to strongly lower the mechanical overcharge and the fatigue of the structure that may occur when the MEMS is exposed to large parasitic vibrations and shocks. Such a low-pass system has not been reported yet, to the best of our knowledge.