A microfabricated electron-tunneling accelerometer as a directional underwater acoustic sensor
- Center for Space Microelectronics, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California 91109 (United States)
- Department of Mechanical Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305-4021 (United States)
- NAWC Aircraft Division, Code 45544 MS 07, Warminster, Pennsylvania 18974-0591 (United States)
Microfabricated accelerometers have been developed for a wide variety of applications; however, the principal commercial focus has been on signal detection in the milli-g to tens or hundreds of g accelerations. The development of a microfabricated device to detect accelerations in the 10 to 100 nano-g range is a substantial technological challenge because of the conflict between the required increase in mass (and reduction in suspension stiffness) and the small volume. In an underwater sensor, designed to be nearly neutrally buoyant, there are additional restrictions on the packaging of the sensor with regard to overall density, resistance to hydrostatic pressure, and flexibility of power and signal leads. The design goal of this project is to demonstrate a two-axis sensor in an 8 cm{sup 3} (and 8 gram) package capable of immersion to 600 meters. The sensor must have a self noise below 100 nano-g per root hertz from 5 to 1000 Hz. Several of these requirements have been demonstrated with an accelerometer structure based on electron tunneling and microfabricated from single-crystal silicon. The electron-tunneling transduction mechanism provides an inherently large transduction constant (although at the expense of requiring closed-loop control) and is readily adapted to batch fabrication in silicon. {copyright} {ital 1996 American Institute of Physics.}
- OSTI ID:
- 288377
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-9509298-; ISSN 0094-243X; TRN: 9615M0120
- Journal Information:
- AIP Conference Proceedings, Vol. 368, Issue 1; Conference: Acoustic velocity sensor focused workshop, Mystic, CT (United States), 12-13 Sep 1995; Other Information: PBD: Apr 1996
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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