Now, in order to understand how an

Now, in order to understand how an accelerometer works, let's look at a MEMS capacitor. It doesn't look much like a capacitor, does it? Well, remember that all the capacitor, really is, is two conductive plates that are electrically separated. Here are the two terminals of the capacitor. Over here, we have what's called a comb finger arrangement, the two structures are very close to each other, but they aren't quite touching. Let me highlight it for you.Now, it should be more obvious that you have parallel surfaces which form a capacitor. But this is no ordinary capacitor. It's a physical structure that can move. This thing over here is basically a tiny weight made out of silicon. And it's kind of like a suspended mass on the end of a spring .Movement , vibrations and even gravity can cause this little mass to move around. And when it does, it shifts the entire combed finger structure. When the fingers move, the distance between the fingers changes. And when the distance between the fingers changes, you get a change in capacitance.