Design and Analysis of Thermal-Bubble-Based Micromachined Accelerometer

In this study, a novel thermal-bubble-based micromachined accelerometer with advantages of no proof mass, preferable frequency response, and high sensitivity is presented. Unlike the other techniques, the only moving element in the proposed device is a small thermal-bubble created by using a high flux heater to vaporize the liquid contained in the micro chamber. In order to improve the performance of the accelerometer, the basic physical characteristics of this sensor have been analyzed. Numerical simulations are conducted to study the heat transfer and fluid flow behavior of the device and to demonstrate the feasibility of our design. The temperature profile and the velocity field distribution under different applied acceleration have been acquired. Moreover, a method for manufacturing the accelerometer by using the techniques of micromachining is provided and the performance of the presented design has been examined. The results concluded that the proposed design has better response and sensitivity comparing to its counterparts.