3-DIMENSIONAL CHIP-ACCELEROMETER

A three dimensional chip-accelerometer has been manufactured by combin ing the UV supported micro galvanoforming process with a sacrificial l ayer technique. It consists of three sensor elements working different ial-capacitively to determine the accelerations in three space axials. By the fabrication, the entire structure of the sensor elements is fi rst grown electrochemically within the patterned thick photoresist AZ 4562 on an bimetallic electroplating base composed of rigid (Cu) and s acrificial (Ti) layers. The movable parts of the sensor elements are t hen obtained by removing the underneath titanium sacrificial layer by meaning of selective wet etching. Sensor structures with a structural height up to 30 mu m and an aspect ratio of about 10 can be reliably m anufactured This fabrication method has been proved to be very simple and economical. Design and technical realisation of the three dimensio nal chip-accelerometer will be described in this paper.