L-Shaped Cantilever Parallel - Plate MEMS Accelerometer Design Parameters using A Gravitational Search Algorithm

Due to their small size, low weight, low cost and low energy consumption, MEMS (Micro Electro-Mechanical Systems) accelerometers have achieved great commercial success in recent decades. The objective of this paper is to find the optimum design for a typical MEMS accelerometer, which satisfies a set of given constraints. Due to the complex nature of the problem, a gravitational search algorithm (GSA) is developed for optimization. The GSA attempts to optimize the inter-plate gap while satisfying all other engineering goals. The model was constructed in Msc Patran and Nastran software were calculated and model’s response was found. In this paper the optimal design from the theoretically derived gravitational search algorithm is compared to finite element model in order to ascertain its accuracy and verify the results.