2.4 ng/ √Hz low-noise fiber-optic MEMS seismic accelerometer

This paper introduces a fiber-optic microelectromechanical system (MEMS) seismic-grade accelerometer that is fabricated by bulk silicon processing using photoresist/silicon dioxide composite masking technology. The proposed sensor is a silicon flexure accelerometer whose displacement transduction system employs a light intensity detection method based on Fabry-Perot interference (FPI). The FPI cavity is formed between the end surface of the cleaved optical fiber and the gold-surfaced sidewall of the proof mass. The proposed MEMS accelerometer is fabricated by one-step silicon deep reactive ion etching with different depths using the composite mask, among which photoresist is used as the etching-defining mask for patterning the etching area while silicon dioxide is used as the depth-defining mask. Noise evaluation experiment results reveal that the overall noise floor of the fiber-optic MEMS accelerometer is 2.4 ng/root Hz at 10 Hz with a sensitivity of 3165 V/g, which is lower than that of most reported micromachined optical accelerometers, and the displacement noise floor of the optical displacement transduction system is 208 fm/root Hz at 10 Hz. Therefore, the proposed MEMS accelerometer is promising for use in high-performance seismic exploration applications. (C) 2022 Optical Society of America

Automated summary

This paper introduces a fiber-optic microelectromechanical system (MEMS) seismic-grade accelerometer fabricated using photoresist/silicon dioxide composite masking technology. The proposed sensor employs a light intensity detection method based on Fabry-Perot interference (FPI) for displacement transduction. Experimental results show that it has a lower overall noise floor and displacement noise floor, making it promising for high-performance seismic exploration applications.