A single-axis low-cost accelerometer fabricated using printed-circuit-board techniques

Abstract

This letter presents a new single-axis low-cost printed-circuit-board (PCB)-based accelerometer. Motivated by the need to develop low-cost human-sensing accelerometer, a capacitive PCB-based microelectromechanical- system (MEMS) accelerometer is developed, and the experimental results of the prototype have demonstrated that the objective is feasible. The PCB-based MEMS accelerometer is fabricated with a metal film adhered to a PCB, which forms the two electrodes of the sensing capacitor of the accelerometer. This signal is compared with the output signal of a commercially available accelerometer, ADXL330, by Analog Devices. The prototypes are designed to have a dynamic range of ±5 g and a bandwidth from 0 to 20 Hz, which covers the range of accelerations for human limbs. The result shows that the new low-cost accelerometer can fulfill the requirement of human motion sensing. © 2009 IEEE.