HIGH-SENSITIVE PHOTONIC CRYSTAL-BASED IN-PLANE OPTICAL ACCELEROMETER BY SILICON ELECTROCHEMICAL MICROMACHINING

The monitoring of acceleration is essential for numerous applications ranging from inertial navigation to comsumer electronics. Typical in-plane accelerometers involve the sensitive displacement measurement of a proof-mass through electrical methods (e.g. capacitive, piezoelectric, etc.). Although optical methods provide higher displacement resolution, immunity to electromagnetic interference, effective long-range readout, only a few works deals with optical in-plane accelerometers [1,2]. In this work, for the first time, an optical accelerometer for low-frequency applications (below 150 Hz) with high-sensitivity (about 10 μm/G) and good resolution (about 100 μG) is designed, simulated, and fabricated by electrochemical micromachining (ECM) [3,4], a novel silicon microstructuring technology enabling advanced microfabrication in any lab.