Fabrication and characterization of tunneling current of anodic bonded dry-etched MEMS tunneling accelerometer

A tunneling accelerometer is fabricated and characterized based on the extension of the silicon-glass anodic-bonding and deep etching releasing process provided by Peking University. The tunneling current under open loop operation is tested in the air by HP4145B semiconductor analyzer, which verifies the presence of tunneling current and the exponential relationship between tunneling gap and tunneling current. The tunneling barrier is extrapolated to be from 1.182 to 2.177 eV. The threshold voltages are tested to be 14-16 V for most of the devices. The threshold voltages under -1, 0, and +1 g are tested, respectively, which shows the sensitivity of the accelerometer is about 87 mV/g.