A Low Cost, Miniature Accelerometer Using Micromachined Silicon Resonators

Terry Roszhart and Constant J. DeCotus

Abstract:	The Micromachined Vibrating Beam Accelerometer (MVBA) is a solid-state sensor that mechanically converts an applied analog acceleration into a digital electronic signal. This sensor uses a micromachined monolithic silicon chip that contains all the mechani- cal parts needed for a high performance accelerome- ter. Two of these chips are packaged into a hybrid package in a dual-stage configuration that provides for the compensation of common mode errors. These errors include temperature, nonlinearity, voltage drift, and sensor aging. A number of preproduction proto- types with Application-Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) electronics have been fabricated and tested. Results show a high level of performance that is ca- pable of meeting the needs of high accuracy defense systems at a cost that is attractive to commercial markets.
Published in:	Proceedings of the 50th Annual Meeting of The Institute of Navigation (1994) June 6 - 8, 1994 Antlers Doubletree Hotel Colorado Springs, CO
Pages:	371 - 380
Cite this article:	Roszhart, Terry, DeCotus, Constant J., "A Low Cost, Miniature Accelerometer Using Micromachined Silicon Resonators," Proceedings of the 50th Annual Meeting of The Institute of Navigation (1994), Colorado Springs, CO, June 1994, pp. 371-380.
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