A Low-Noise High-Order Mode-Localized MEMS Accelerometer

Abstract

This paper reports a precision mode-localized accelerometer operating in a higher-order flexural mode. The accelerometer consists of two symmetric resonators coupled by a central rigid coupler to generate an ultra-weak coupling factor. A reduced noise floor is observed when the resonators operate in the higher-order flexural mode compared to the basic lower-order mode. The mode-localized accelerometer working in the fifth-order mode demonstrates an input-referred bias instability of 130 ng and noise floor of 85 ng/root Hz, which are the best results obtained for accelerometers employing the mode localization paradigm to date. These results indicate that the performance of the mode-localized sensors can be improved by operating at a higher working frequency if the coupling factor and quality factor do not drop significantly. [2020-0365]