System level analysis and design of a single-loop fourth-order sigma-delta(ΣΔ) accelerometer is presented to reduce quantization noise and enhance resolution of the micromachined accelerometer.Stability of the system is analyzed by root locus method based on the linear model established in this work.Theoretical analysis indicates that the forth-order ΣΔ micromachined accelerometer has good performance in noise,dead zone and idle tone.Based on the analysis and discussion of the system level,the transistor level design of the interface circuit is implemented,the circuit is fabricated in 0.5 μm two poly two metal CMOS process,and the tested results indicate that the sensitivity is 1.2 V/g,nonlinearity is 0.2%,open-loop noise density is 12 μg/Hz1/2,closed-loop noise density is 80 ug/Hz1/2 and the power dissipation is 40 mW.