In-plane silicon-on-insulator optical MEMS accelerometer using waveguide fabry-perot microcavity with silicon/air bragg mirrors

A novel in-plane Silicon-On-insulator (SOI) optical accelerometer using a Fabry-Perot microcavity with two distributed Bragg reflectors (DBR) is presented, in which one DBR mirror is attached to two suspended proof masses. As a consequence of acceleration, the relative displacement of the movable mirror with respect to the fixed one changes the cavity length and modifies the Fabry-Perot resonance. All of the device components are fabricated by using one single fabrication step. The sensor performance could reach ¿g resolution with a demonstrated 2.5 nm/g sensitivity and 400 ¿g resolution.