Compliant Force Amplifier Mechanisms for Surface Micromachined Resonant Accelerometers

C.B.W. Pedersen and A.A. Seshia
University of Cambridge, UK

Keywords: resonant accelerometer, force amplifier, topology optimisation

Abstract:
The present work deals with the optimization of a compliant force amplifier mechanism in a surface micromachined resonant accelerometer. Figures of merit including noise floor and scale factor are critically dependent on the gain of the force amplifier mechanism and hence optimisation of the compliant leverage mechanism is necessary. The mechanisms are initially design using continuum topology optimisation. The results of topology optimisation are seen to depend strongly on the size of the design domain, output and input stiffnesses and boundary conditions. The results of topology optimisation are converted to beam element models that used for a further shape and size optimisation. Single-stage force amplification factors greater than 100 are obtained from the results of the optimisation process.

Nanotech 2004 Conference Technical Program Abstract