Thermal-structural coupled analysis in a 3-DOF accelerometer

The rapid progress in microsystems technology is increasingly supported by various modeling methodologies and simulation tools. A coupled-field analysis procedure is established to analyze a multi-degree of freedom accelerometer. The proposed sensor dimensions are 1.5times1.5times0.5 mm 3 (LtimesWtimesT) and the beam size is 950times80times10 mum 3 (LtimesWtimesT). The effect of electrical heating in a silicon MEMS piezoresistive acceleration sensor has been analyzed. This analysis is necessary to control the internal power dissipation, predict the voltage output and optimize the mechanical parameters.