Capacitive micromechanical accelerometer

A capacitive micromechanical accelerometer comprising:

• a substrate, which defines a substrate plane;
• a rotor mounted to the substrate via one or more torsion springs enabling rotation of the rotor out of the substrate plane about a rotor rotation axis;
• and
• a stator, which is fixed to an anchor point on the substrate plane;
• wherein the rotor includes one or more rotor electrodes and the stator includes one or more stator electrodes;
• wherein the rotor and stator electrodes are configured such that when the accelerometer undergoes movement with an acceleration component perpendicular to the substrate plane, rotation of the rotor causes a change in the effective area of the rotor and stator electrodes and/or the distance between the rotor and stator electrodes;
• wherein the capacitive micromechanical accelerometer further comprises one or more damping springs connecting the rotor to damping spring anchor points on the substrate, wherein each damping spring has a height perpendicular to the substrate plane that is smaller than a height perpendicular to the substrate plane of the one or more torsion springs.