Damping Ratio Analysis of a Silicon Capacitive Micromechanical Accelerometer

In most MEMS devices, the moving micro-structures are surrounded by air which significantly affects their dynamics behaviors. The correct prediction of the squeeze-film air damping ratio is essential in MEMS (Micro-Electro-Mechanical System) devices design. In the paper, a static test is proposed to measure the squeeze-film air damping ratios of capacitive MEMS accelerometer under different pressures. The unsealed chip of capacitive accelerometer is placed in vacuum extraction equipment and an open loop circuit is developed to apply step signal in the test. By charging the pressure and measuring the overshoot Mp and the settling time ts from the time response of the system, the damping ratio ξ under different pressures can be calculated. Finite element method (FEM) based on the modified Reynolds equation is utilized to simulate the transient response of the micro-structure. Good correlation between experiment and FEM analysis is obtained. The proposed static test in this paper provides a new method to more easily measure the dynamic performances of micro-structures under various pressures.