Design and simulation of a novel highly symmetrical piezoelectric triaxial accelerometer

A monolithic piezoelectric triaxial accelerometer, using a highly symmetric quad-beam structure with a single seismic mass, has been developed. The structure of the accelerometer is analyzed in detail theoretically and numerically. Static and modal simulations with FEM (Finite Element Method) simulator are done to analyze mechanical response at different applied accelerations. The simulated results show that the accelerometer can sense triaxial acceleration separately simultaneously. It has sensitivities about 21mV/g, 15mV/g and 15mV/g in Z-, X- and Y-axis, respectively. Moreover, nearly zero cross-axis sensitivity can be obtained theoretically. Some design optimizations are done to improve its performance.EI