Novel graphene-based optical MEMS accelerometer dependent on intensity modulation

This paper proposes a novel graphene-based optical microelectromechanical systems MEMS accelerometer that is dependent on the intensity modulation and optical properties of graphene. The designed sensing system includes a multilayer graphene finger, a laser diode (LD) light source, a photodiode, and integrated optical waveguides. The proposed accelerometer provides several advantages, such as negligible cross-axis sensitivity, appropriate linearity behavior in the operation range, a relatively broad measurement range, and a significantly wider bandwidth when compared with other important contributions in the literature. Furthermore, the functional characteristics of the proposed device are designed analytically, and are then confirmed using numerical methods. Based on the simulation results, the functional characteristics are as follows: a mechanical sensitivity of 1,019 nm/g, an optical sensitivity of 145.7 %/g, a resonance frequency of 15,553 Hz, a bandwidth of 7 kHz, and a measurement range of +/- 10 g. Owing to the obtained functional characteristics, the proposed device is suitable for several applications in which high sensitivity and wide bandwidth are required simultaneously.