Data from: Performance improvement of miniaturized ZnO nanowire accelerometer fabricated by refresh hydrothermal synthesis

Miniaturized accelerometers are necessary for evaluating the performance of small devices such as haptics, robotics and simulators. In this study, we fabricated miniaturized accelerometers using well aligned ZnO nanowires. The layer of ZnO nanowires is used for active piezoelectric layer of the accelerometer and copper was chosen as a head mass. Seedless and refresh hydrothermal synthesis methods were conducted to grow ZnO nanowires on the copper substrate and effect of ZnO nanowire length on the accelerometer performance was investigated. The refresh hydrothermal synthesis exhibits longer ZnO nanowires, 12 μm, than the seedless hydrothermal synthesis, 6 μm. Performance of the fabricated accelerometers was verified by comparing with a commercial accelerometer. The sensitivity of the fabricated accelerometer by the refresh hydrothermal synthesis is shown to be 37.7 pA/g, which is about 30 times larger than the previous result.

微型加速度计（miniaturized accelerometers）是评估触觉装置、机器人系统与模拟器等小型设备性能的必备器件。本研究采用高度取向的氧化锌（ZnO）纳米线制备微型加速度计，将氧化锌纳米线层作为加速度计的活性压电层，并选用铜作为配重块。研究采用无晶种水热合成法与循环水热合成法，在铜基底上生长氧化锌纳米线，并探究了纳米线长度对加速度计性能的影响。结果表明，循环水热合成法制备的氧化锌纳米线长度可达12 μm，长于无晶种水热合成法制备的6 μm纳米线。通过与商用加速度计对比，验证了所制备微型加速度计的性能。其中，采用循环水热合成法制备的加速度计灵敏度可达37.7皮安每克（pA/g），约为此前研究结果的30倍。