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Double-Comb-Finger Design to Eliminate Cross-Axis Sensitivity in a Dual-Axis

Accelerometer

Article · October 2017

DOI: 10.1109/LSENS.2017.2756108

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 VOL. 1, NO. 5, OCTOBER 2017 2501004

Mechanical sensors

Double-Comb-Finger Design to Eliminate Cross-Axis Sensitivity in a

Dual-Axis Accelerometer
Zakriya Mohammed , Waqas A. Gill, and Mahmoud Rasras*
Department of Electrical Engineering, and Computer Science, Masdar Institute, Khalifa University of Science and Technology, Abu
Dhabi 54224, UAE
∗ Senior Member, IEEE

Manuscript received August 3, 2017; revised September 11, 2017; accepted September 20, 2017. Date of publication September 26, 2017; date of current
version October 6, 2017.

Abstract— We present a dual-axis accelerometer with zero cross-axis sensitivity. In general, multiaxis accelerometers with
single proof-mass have multiple degrees of freedom, making them susceptible to high cross-axis sensitivity. In this article,
a novel differential capacitive finger scheme is presented, which fully eliminates the in-plane cross-axis sensitivity at the
device level. The proposed accelerometer is highly sensitive and has a differential capacitance scale factor of 80.97 fF/g
(g = 9.8 m/s2 ) over ± 10 g range with a pull-in voltage of 6 V. Additionally, the out-of-plane motion due to acceleration in
the Z-axis direction is significantly suppressed due to the high-spring constant in that direction. The device is fabricated in
a compact footprint of 1.6 mm × 1.6 mm using GlobalFoundries’ Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) platform.

Index Terms—Mechanical sensors, accelerometers, cross-axis sensitivity, differential capacitance, mode spacing, sensitivity.

I. INTRODUCTION are chosen. While, for inertial navigation, accelerometers with a range
of ±1 g, nonlinearity of <0.1%, and cross-axis sensitivity of <0.1%
An accelerometer is a mechanical sensor which measures accel-
are selected [4].
eration due to physical motion or gravity. It has several key appli-
The cross-axis sensitivity is defined as the output detected on the
cations in automotive industry, consumer electronics, heavy indus-
sensing axis due to acceleration imposed in the other orthogonal axes
try, aerospace, and defense [1], [2]. Microelectromechanical (MEMS)
[8]. The percentage Cross-axis sensitivity is generally expressed as the
based accelerometers have many advantages in terms of reduced cost,
ratio of the measured sensitivity in the cross-direction to the measured
volume, and weight over their bulky counterparts. Sensors employing
sensitivity in the sensing direction.
transduction mechanisms like piezoelectric, capacitive, piezoresistive,
The main motivation of this work is to eliminate cross-axis sen-
optical and tunneling can be implemented using MEMS technology
sitivity at the device level in Dual-axis accelerometers. Generally, in
[3], [4]. Among all of them, the capacitive accelerometers which detect
multi-axis accelerometers proof-mass has multiple Degree of Freedom
acceleration by converting a capacitance change into a proportional
(DOF), causing high cross-sensitivity between different inputs. Single
voltage remain popular, owing to low power, high sensitivity, low
axis accelerometers typically have a cross-axis sensitivity of less than
noise, low cost, and small device footprint [4].
1%. Even a single-axis accelerometer (Z-axis sensing) with 0% cross-
While Single-axis accelerometers are commonly used, there are
axis sensitivity was reported [9]. However, multi-axis accelerometers
many definite applications of dual-axis accelerometers like land nav-
have cross axis sensitivity of more than 2% [10]–[14]. In order to re-
igation, where only two 2-axis sensing is required [5]. Dual-axis ac-
duce the cross-axis sensitivity, previous configurations included more
celerometers are also used in applications such as upgrading the gam-
than one proof-mass to sense acceleration in X and Y independently
ing experience in Personal Digital Assistance (PDA) [6]. They can
[15], which drastically increases overall device area. In the present
likewise be utilized as a part of anti-theft gadgets, mechanical and
work, a single proof-mass dual-axis accelerometer is proposed which
automotive devices.
eliminates cross-axis sensitivity at device level. Utilization of single
Due to the diverse usage of accelerometers, their specifications
proof-mass helps to improve overall performance and reduce size. In
are also application dependent. The specifications include sensitiv-
addition, Brownian noise is reduced as it is inversely proportional to
ity, range, bandwidth, offset, non-linearity, cross-axis sensitivity and
mass [15].
shock handling capability. The detailed procedure to determine the
mentioned specifications are explained in [7]. Among these specifica-
tions, cross-axis sensitivity is an excellent measure of the performance II. SENSOR DESIGN CONCEPT
for very precise applications which require higher accuracy. For exam-
A. Design Overview
ple, airbag deployment in automobiles, accelerometers having cross-
axis sensitivity of <5%, a range of ±50 g, and nonlinearity of <2% Fig. 1 shows a block diagram of the proposed accelerometer. It
consists of a square proof-mass suspended through two sets of crab-
Corresponding author: Zakriya Mohammed (e-mail: zmohammed1@masdar. leg springs. This spring structure is utilized to support the moving
ac.ae).
Associate Editor: K. Foster. proof-mass of the sensor. The length l, width w, and thickness t of
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/LSENS.2017.2756108 the beams of the crab-leg springs are 300 μm, 7 μm, and 30 μm,

1949-307X C 2017 IEEE. Personal use is permitted, but republication/redistribution requires IEEE permission.

See http://www.ieee.org/publications_standards/publications/rights/index.html for more information.

2501004
Fig. 1. (a) Block diagram of the proposed accelerometer. (b) Equiva-
lent circuit of Y-axis sensing unit.
Table 1. Design Specification of Proposed Dual-Axis Accelerometer
respectively. The finger spacing (g1 and g2 ) are set at 1.25 μm and
3.75 μm, respectively. This value is selected as per the optimization
technique mentioned in [16]. Accelerations in the in-plane X- and Y-
directions are respectively detected by the capacitance change caused
by the finger gap space variation in the comb electrodes. As a re-
sult of this suspension, the resonance mode in the in-plane sensing
directions (X- and Y-axis) are the dominant modes while the reso-
nant modes in the Z-axial direction occur at much greater frequencies
due to higher stiffness in this direction. This results in the reduction
of cross-axis sensitivity in XY due to Z-axis acceleration. As will
be discussed in the next section, a special electrode design is used
to eliminate cross-axis sensitivity. Table 1 shows the design param-
eters of the proposed accelerometer. The Inertial Measurement Unit
(IMU) platform of GlobalFoundries is used to realize the dual-axis
accelerometer [17]. Scanning electron microscope (SEM) images of
the fabricated structure are shown in Fig. 2.
VOL. 1, NO. 5, OCTOBER 2017
Fig. 2. SEM images of the fabricated device.
B. Working of the Accelerometer
The X- and Y- sensing electrode units consist of movable finger
combs (rotors) attached to a proof-mass and fixed combs (stators)
anchored to a substrate, see Fig. 1(a). When the proof-mass is centered
all the capacitances are at rest and nominally equal to C0 . However,
when an acceleration is applied (i.e., considering negative Y-axis), the
proof-mass gets displaced by x along the Y-axis due to the springs
restoring forces. This acceleration is detected by the right and left
hand side capacitive electrodes C1 and C2 , respectively, as shown in
Fig. 1(b). In this case, the gap spacing in the right electrode decreases
while it increases in the left electrode. This results in a corresponding
increases and decrease in C1 and C2 , respectively
εA
C1 = = C0 + C (1)
g1 − x
εA
C2 = = C0 − C (2)
g1 + x
where ε is the permittivity, A is the effective area between fingers and
g1 is the finger gap spacing.
Thus, by detecting the capacitance change, the acceleration can be
quantified. Sensing is done differentially, which cancels many first
order effects and offsets. The voltage that appears at the output is
given by
C1 − C2 C
Vout = Vm = Vm . (3)
C1 + C2 C0
Both the X- and Y- axis accelerations have same the design concept
and working principle. The opposite set of top and bottom side elec-
trodes (C3 and C4 ) form the sensing unit for the X-axis acceleration
detection.
C. Cross-Axis Sensitivity
In traditional dual-axis accelerometers, the Y-axis acceleration also
causes unwanted capacitance change in the X-sensing electrodes. This
is caused by a small change in the overlap area of the X-axis top
and bottom combs. Moreover, this capacitance change is differential
causing a net capacitance change (δC) and, hence, a net output voltage.
Our proposed dual-axis accelerometer has overcome this design
limitation. In our design, each electrode is made of two sets of combs
with fingers extruding from both sides. The area for both sides are equal
and they both contribute equally to the total effective capacitance.
Fig. 3(b) and (c) shows the impact of applying acceleration in the
 VOL. 1, NO. 5, OCTOBER 2017
Fig. 3. (a) Highlighted X-axis sensing unit (b) enlarge view of top X-
electrode before and after Y-axis acceleration. (c) Zoomed view of the
area change in comb caused by the Y-axis motion and (d) the area
change of sensing comb caused by the Z-axis motion.
negative Y-direction on the X-axis sensing electrode. As illustrated
in Fig. 3(b), the finger gap spacing of this electrode remain constant
at both sides. Though the overlap area at each side will change by
δ A, the total capacitive effective area per electrode will not change.
Hence, the effective capacitance will remain constant. This is further
explained in Fig. 3(c). Hence, each electrode self-eliminate cross-axis
sensitivity.
Furthermore, as a result of the differential sensing of X-axis
(C3 , and C4 ), no voltage will be measured at the output of this elec-
trode. This is shown as follows:
   
(C3 − C4 ) (C0 − C0 )
(VX ) AY = Vm = Vm = 0. (4)
(C3 + C4 ) (2C0 )
Similarly, the net capacitance change of the Y-axis sensing unit
introduced by the X-axis acceleration is also canceled in the same
manner.
2501004
Fig. 4. Exaggerated view X and Y-axis modes of accelerometer.
Although the stiffness coefficient in Z-axis is designed to be much
larger than in XY-axes, the out-of-plane acceleration acting on a dual-
axis accelerometer will also cause a small displacement in the Z-
direction. Thus, the capacitances for both of the X- and Y- axis sensing
units (left, right, top and bottom) will be reduced because of the
decreasing overlapped area [see Fig. 3(d)]. Therefore, the change in
capacitance across all electrodes will be equal and have the same
sign. For differential sensing, the net voltage change will be zero, as
follows:
 
((C0 − C) − (C0 − C))
(VX ) AZ = Vm = 0. (5)
(2C0 )
III. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
This study has employed a commercial FEA (Finite Element Anal-
ysis) software package of CoventorWare and MEMS+ to analyze the
proposed design. A typical result from FEA is shown in Fig. 4 which
illustrates the first two frequency modes of the spring-mass structure
located at 3.78 kHz and 3.791 kHz in X- and Y-axis directions, re-
spectively. The third frequency mode is in Z-direction recording a
frequency of 8.2 kHz. Based on the modal analysis the bandwidth is
calculated to be around 3 kHz.
Experiments were conducted to verify capacitance calculation of
the sensor. The measured structural dimensions are in very agreement
with the design parameters shown in Table 1. The gap spacing between
the fingers has increased by ∼0.5 μm during fabrication. The average
measured rest capacitance for the electrodes is ∼6.7 pF. The values
measured were to some extent greater than those obtained from the
analytical analysis. The difference is due to parasitic capacitances
resulting from fringing field effect, packaging, connection-terminals,
and probes used in the experiments.
The capacitance-voltage (CV) change tests are performed on the
fabricated accelerometer. A dc sweep is applied between the proof
mass and one of the stationary electrodes, while the other electrodes
are connected to ground. Fig. 5 shows the experimental set-up. The
measurements were carried out using precision LCR meter (E4980A)
at room temperature. The oscillation level is set at 500 mV, and fre-
quency is at 1 MHz.
The structure is designed to be very sensitive to small forces and
can be pulled in quite easily. The measured pull-in voltage for the
structure was found to be 6 V. Fig. 6 shows the C-V measurement
results for the dual-axis accelerometers.
The differential capacitive sensitivity (C)/g is calculated to be
80.9 fF/g. As the sensor uses gap-changing principle, the response is
2501004 VOL. 1, NO. 5, OCTOBER 2017

range of 10g. The average cross-sensitivity at the device level is 0%.

The accelerometer is sensitive with a scale factor of ∼80.8 fF/g in
both planner directions. Based on the modal analysis the bandwidth
is around 3 kHz. The CV measurement showed that the device pull-
in is at 6 V. The device was designed and fabricated in the Inertial
Measurement Unit platform of GlobalFoundries.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT
This work was funded by Mubadala Development Company, Abu Dhabi, Economic
Development Board- Singapore and GLOBALFOUNDRIES, Singapore, under the frame-
work of “Twinlab” project with participation of A∗STAR Institute of Microelectronics,
Fig. 5. Experimental set-up for CV and rest capacitance measure- Singapore (IME), Masdar Institute of Science and Technology, Abu Dhabi, and GLOB-
ment. ALFOUNDRIES, Singapore.

Fig. 6. Measured CV plot.
Fig. 7. Sensitivity plot of accelerometer.
nonlinear for high “g” accelerations. The linear range is found to be
in ±10 g. The response is shown in Fig. 7.
IV. CONCLUSION
This letter presents a novel scheme to eliminate cross-axis sensi-
tivity in a dual-axis accelerometer. The device size is compact, and it
was implemented on an area of 1.6 mm2 by design. The device has
almost linear capacitance output across the targeted input acceleration
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