D'Alessandro Antonino, Scudero Salvatore, Vitale Giovanni
Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia, Osservatorio Nazionale Terremoti, 00143 Rome, Italy.
Sensors (Basel). 2019 Jul 12;19(14):3093. doi: 10.3390/s19143093.
MEMS (Micro Electro-Mechanical Systems) sensors enable a vast range of applications: among others, the use of MEMS accelerometers for seismology related applications has been emerging considerably in the last decade. In this paper, we provide a comprehensive review of the capacitive MEMS accelerometers: from the physical functioning principles, to the details of the technical precautions, and to the manufacturing procedures. We introduce the applications within seismology and earth sciences related disciplines, namely: earthquake observation and seismological studies, seismic surveying and imaging, structural health monitoring of buildings. Moreover, we describe how the use of the miniaturized technologies is revolutionizing these fields and we present some cutting edge applications that, in the very last years, are taking advantage from the use of MEMS sensors, such as rotational seismology and gravity measurements. In a ten-year outlook, the capability of MEMS sensors will certainly improve through the optimization of existing technologies, the development of new materials, and the implementation of innovative production processes. In particular, the next generation of MEMS seismometers could be capable of reaching a noise floor under the lower seismic noise (few tenths of ng/ Hz ) and expanding the bandwidth towards lower frequencies (∼0.01 Hz).
微机电系统（MEMS）传感器具有广泛的应用：其中，在过去十年中，MEMS加速度计在与地震学相关的应用中的使用显著增加。在本文中，我们对电容式MEMS加速度计进行了全面综述：从物理工作原理到技术注意事项的细节，再到制造工艺。我们介绍了地震学和地球科学相关学科中的应用，即：地震观测和地震学研究、地震勘探和成像、建筑物结构健康监测。此外，我们描述了小型化技术的使用如何正在变革这些领域，并且我们展示了一些近年来利用MEMS传感器的前沿应用，例如旋转地震学和重力测量。展望未来十年，通过现有技术的优化、新材料的开发以及创新生产工艺的实施，MEMS传感器的性能必将得到提升。特别是，下一代MEMS地震仪可能能够达到低于较低地震噪声（几十分之一纳克/赫兹）的本底噪声，并将带宽扩展到更低频率（约0.01赫兹）。
