Design and fabrication of a micromachined silicon accelerometer with thick-film printed PZT sensors

An accelerometer fabricated by a combination of screen printing and silicon micromachining is reported. This is the first device of its kind fabricate d in this manner. Details of the finite element model (FEM) of the sensor a nd its method of fabrication an described. Initial results indicate a sensi tivity of 16 pC g(-1), which compares very favourably with a sensitivity of 0.15 pC g(-1) reported for thin-film devices. Experimental results show a good level of agreement with the FEM results. Analysis of the results highl ight the need to further improve the mechanical properties and consistency of the thick-film PZT layer.