A micromachined piezoelectric accelerometer has been designed and fabricated using an entirely surface-micromachining-based process flow. The device consists of a 1000 /spl mu/m long polysilicon cantilever structure with sputtered ZnO as the piezoelectric material. Experimental results show good linearity (<2%) over a /spl plusmn/25 g range. The theoretical device sensitivity and noise performance are determined and compared to actual performance. A second-generation accelerometer design is presented which offers higher sensitivity and utilizes piezoelectric force balancing in order to achieve improved dynamic range and linearity.