Preliminary Model and Technology of Piezoelectric Low Temperature Co-fired Ceramic (LTCC) Uniaxial Accelerometer

Design procedure, technology and basic properties of a piezoelectric Low Temperature Co-fired Ceramics (LTCC) accelerometer are presented in this paper. The sensor consists of a LTCC membrane with a seismic mass. Meggitt InSensor® PZT thick film has been applied as the sensing material. Finite element method (FEM) has been used to analyze the impact of the sensor geometry (membrane thickness, membrane and seismic mass radii) and PZT thick film placement on basic properties (sensitivity and bandwidth) of the device. The LTCC process was optimized in order to create thin and planar ceramic membrane with relatively huge seismic mass. Selected properties of the sensor have been measured and compared with the simulated ones.